Azamour remains on course for what could turn into a momentous Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in nine days time and the recent upturn in the weather has been a significant boost to the four-year-old's preparation.
Last year's Irish Champion Stakes winner has bypassed tomorrow's Lockinge in favour of making his first start of the season closer to home and the move looks like it has paid off already. Azamour has already shown a marked preference for fast ground and the improvement in ground conditions this week has been just what his trainer John Oxx had wanted.
"It's very welcome. This week has been the first time we have been able to work him on good grass and it should help him along. It's still on the soft side to be ideal but it is great compared to what we have had.
"As he gets older he takes a little bit more to get ready and he will need a couple more bits of good work to get him there ready for a race. He will be ready to run a good race, but even so I would imagine it will bring him on a good bit," Oxx said yesterday.
With the Irish Derby hero Grey Swallow, the Arc winner Bago and the Epsom Derby winner North Light among the possible opposition, the Group One Curragh race looks like it could turn into a remarkably strong contest so early in the season.
Oxx also confirmed yesterday that the Derrinstown Trial runner-up Alayan will run next in the Prix du Jockey Club over its new distance of a mile and a quarter. "The move up in distance will give him a better chance of competing at the top level," he said. "He won't be supplemented into the Irish Guineas. He has come out of Leopardstown in good form and the plan remains to go to France."
Oxx's immediate focus tomorrow, however, will be on the Group Three at Naas where the Athasi winner Hazariya will fly the Currabeg flag on her own.
As expected Indestachel has been supplemented into Sunday's French 2,000 Guineas, the Poule D'Essai des Poulains, at a cost of €24,000 and is set to be joined in the race by the Ballydoyle duo of Dark Cheetah and Cougar Cat. Oratario was taken out of the race yesterday and is likely to appear next in the Irish Guineas on Saturday week.
Aidan O'Brien could also be doubly represented in the 1,000 Guineas, the Poule D'Essai des Pouliches, as he has left in the Stakes winner Cherokee alongside Silk And Scarlet.
Before that the O'Brien-Fallon team will be in Group One action at Newbury tomorrow where the enigmatic Antonius Pius will takcle Rakti in the Lockinge Stakes. "He is in great form," O'Brien reported yesterday. "He is a grand sort who has been working well. He has a lot of speed so we could keep him at a mile or drop back in future."
O'Brien and Fallon will have a less exalted target this evening when they take the impeccably bred Streets Of Gold to Wexford for the 13-furlong maiden. It's a fair bet that this wasn't the kind of event his breeders had in mind when partnering Sadler's Wells to the double Oaks and Leger winner User Friendly but on the evidence of his three-year-old debut when only three lengths off Shalapour, Streets Of Gold should have little difficulty winning his maiden at least.
Tadhg O'Shea has good prospects in both handicaps with Sidekick and Fairwood Present.
An interesting runner tonight is the ex-John Dunlop-trained Excelsius who has a jumping debut for Pat Hughes in the maiden hurdle. A Stakes winner in France in 2003 and Group One placed in Italy as a two-year-old, Excelsius ran down the field in the Lincoln in his first Irish start but just an average jumping round in this company will do.
