RACING:AIDAN O'BRIEN'S top juvenile colt Power is in pursuit of a European two-year-old crown at a star-studded Newmarket this afternoon but the growing international flavour to the rest of 2011's top-flight flat action also sees Ireland's champion trainer in action in Keeneland tonight.
Colm O’Donoghue flies to Kentucky to team up with Zoffany in the €447,000 Shadwell Turf Mile and a clash with Gio Ponti while Together will try to finally change her luck at the top level in the Grade One €261,000 First Lady Stakes on the same card.
Together, runner-up in both the English and Irish Guineas, and the Matron Stakes, has been installed a morning line favourite for the mile turf event where her opposition includes the ex-English Theyskens Theory.
Zoffany is the sole three-year-old in the Shadwell Mile, a race O’Brien has won in the past with both Aussie Rules (2006) and Landseer (2002,) and the Irish hope is joined in the Keeneland feature by the English-trained Dance And Dance who teams up with Jamie Spencer.
Irish eyes, however, will be firmly concentrated before that on Newmarket where Power is joined by Jim Bolger’s Parish Hall in a Dewhurst that could go a long way towards deciding Europe’s top two-year-old this season. Power landed the National Stakes on his last start and has been only beaten once this term when runner-up to La Collina in the Phoenix.
Ryan Moore resumes in the Ballydoyle hot-seat on Power and is also on Reply for O’Brien in the Middle Park Stakes where Séamus Heffernan is on Crusade and the Mick Mulvaney-trained Tough As Nails attempts to secure a fairytale Group One victory for his Co Meath-based team.
Irish representation is spread throughout the card which has been rejigged to facilitate next week’s “Champions Day” fixture at Ascot and includes three hopefuls in the Cesarewitch. David Wachman’s Mount Athos tops the weights but Dermot Weld is pursuing a victory with the dual-Galway winner Rainforest Magic a full 19 years after Vintage Crop was successful in the marathon event.
Home action today is an all-National Hunt card at Fairyhouse where the Noel Meade-Paul Carberry team can score with Dylan Ross in the two-mile maiden hurdle and Pride Of The Artic looks good for the two-and-a-half maiden.
