RACING: Dubliner Peter Casey has already had a flat season to remember but Palace Star looks a bet to put an even greater sheen on his 2004 with victory in this evening's McDonogh Handicap.

The Stamullen based trainer also runs Fearn Royal in the €79,000 to the winner feature but circumstances look to favour her younger stable companion.

Statistics can be made to prove anything but it is surely significant that three year olds have won four of the last five renewals of this race and Palace Star looks best of the three year old quartet this time.

A 4lb hike in the weights for beating Prize Time at the Curragh last time out still leaves Palace Star lurking at the bottom of the handicap and Rory Cleary's 7lb claim will be a valuable asset.

Throw in a perfect draw in box 16 and the fact that Casey has saddled eight flat winners this term, already clear of last year's three winners and the six total in both 2002 and 2001, and Palace Star's credentials look solid.

Last year's winner Eklim is back for another crack at the race but a darker horse might be Calorando whose sole start in 11 months yielded a promising fourth to Tropical Lady in an ultra-competitive race at the Curragh. The negative with Calorando, however, is a poor draw in stall one.

Michael Kinane is on the Group 1 placed topweight Livadiya but the action looks like it might be mainly confined to lower weighted contenders and Palace Star looks the best of them.

Dermot Weld runs both Prize Time and Battling Mac in the big race as he tries for a seventh McDonogh success and he could go into that in winning form as Tasman appears an eye-catching Rosewell House entry for the two mile handicap.

Weld has won this race six times since 1990 and despite second topweight there is a lot to like about Tasman's chance.

He hasn't run since finishing runner up in a hurdle last March but six runs on the flat included one at a rating of 78.

Placed efforts included a third to the champion hurdler Hardy Eustace and yet he goes into today's race on a mark of 65.

Considering Weld's Ballybrit pedigree Tasman does look one to keep an eye on.

Weld has the frustrating Pulitser in the concluding seven furlong maiden but all the evidence suggests this one should be avoided.

The filly Dawn Raid boasts an encouraging run behind Tarakala as a two year old but even that doesn't read as well as the first run of the Steve Mahon trained Mishall last year.

This one was bought out of the Marcus Tregoning yard for just 5,500 guineas at Tattersalls three weeks ago. Two runs in England last season yielded a poor effort at Epsom where he started favourite on the back of a Sandown debut where Mishall ran second with the subsequent Derby runner-up Rule Of Law only third.

He is very much the unknown quantity in this evening's contest but Dawn Raid apart it doesn't look an awe-inspiring race.

The 1999 Galway Hurdle winner Quinze returned from a three year absence on the flat behind Golden Triangle and then ran second to Mutakarrim at Killarney in just his fourth career start over fences.

Two of those were victories, including a Galway success in 1999, and now that he is back to something like full fitness Quinze will be a hard nut to crack in the conditions chase.

The Posh Paddy won three bumpers on fast ground, including one at Cheltenham under owner Barry O'Connell, and his sole hurdles start to date can be dismissed as it was on soft going last December. With Ruby Walsh on board he looks the one in the opening maiden hurdle.