Horse Racing: One Cool Cat may have won a pair of Group One races this year but he looks like being beaten to the crown of Irish champion two-year-old by a colt whose top performance came in a Group Three.
Grey Swallow won the second of his two starts in Leopardstown's Killavullan Stakes but that scintillating eight-length defeat of One Cool Cat's stable companion Newton may have swung the prestigious top spot his way.
The final rankings have to be formulated at next month's International Classifications meeting but One Cool Cat, winner of the National Stakes and the Phoenix Stakes, and the clear ante-post favourite for the 2,000 Guineas, looks like having to settle for the runner-up placing.
The Aidan O'Brien-trained colt is on a mark of 117 after his National Stakes victory in September but the Irish handicapper, Gary O'Gorman, indicated yesterday that the figures are likely to come out in Grey Swallow's favour.
"Newton is on 104 here and 103 in England and France. But even depending on either of those figures, Grey Swallow still comes out on 119 or 120," O'Gorman said.
"One Cool Cat is a colt who has done nothing wrong and has won two Group One races. Compared to that, giving the accolade to a horse who has won a four-runner Group Three may seem strange. But that is something we will have to decide upon," he added.
Such a rating would also leave Grey Swallow challenging for top honours in the European rankings but O'Gorman stressed that no final assessments have been made.
One Cool Cat was briefly rated at 119 after his success in the Phoenix Stakes but the subsequent performances of the runner-up that day, Old Deuteronomy, resulted in a 2lb drop.
The finale to the 2003 flat season is at Leopardstown tomorrow but the warm-up to Down Royal's James Nicholson Wine Merchants Champion Chase starts today with a seven-race card clearly affected by the firmness of the ground.
Just 47 runners line up, including just 16 in the final four races. Only two go in the €23,700-to-the-winner Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle, where the versatile Mutakarrim takes on the up-and-coming Khetaam.
Mutakarrim defied top weight in a Naas handicap on the flat last time and brings a 132 rating to the clash. However, Khetaam won well from Puck Out last time and should relish the conditions.
Paul Carberry can also hit the scoresheet on Kings Orchard in the Beginners Chase, while Kergaul could also go close in the handicap chase if reproducing his winning effort at Gowran.
Jessica Harrington gives Well Presented a start over hurdles in the two-mile-and-six maiden and the evidence of this one's four-length defeat of Easy at Tipperary suggests a follow-up success.
Harrington also has Slaney Fox in the Listed mares novice hurdle and this consistent sort is preferred to the Wexford runner-up Definite Best.
