IRISH RACING/Weekend preview: Another Irish Flat season begins tomorrow on the back of all-time high prize-money and record breaking success.
Aidan O'Brien sends five horses to the Curragh, including the classic hope Century City and the $6.8 million maiden Tasmanian Tiger, as the Ballydoyle battalion faces the massive challenge of emulating last year's 23 Group One victories world wide.
The first wedge of a €10 million-plus prize fund for the year for the Curragh alone has attracted all the other top names too.
Champion jockey Pat Smullen is back from the Middle East and is a 1 to 2 favourite with Paddy Power to retain his crown again. Mick Kinane is 3 to 1 and John Murtagh, who had a winner at Doncaster yesterday, is on 4 to 1.
However, the main focus tomorrow on the betting side will be on the fitness levels of the respective top stables.
O'Brien reported earlier in the week that he considered his team to be behind normal schedule in terms of readiness for the current campaign. But John Oxx yesterday gave a more upbeat report.
"The horses are in good form. We've had a reasonable winter, with February being the only really bad month, and they seem to be pretty forward.
"My two year olds last year went off colour at a critical time so we are in the dark about most of them. We don't know yet if there are any good ones but we will have to get them out and see if anything crops up," Oxx said.
Dermot Weld is not expecting fireworks straight away from his powerful string but is looking further ahead to when he can run the classic propsects, In Time's Eye and Jazz Beat.
"I'm very pleased with In Time's Eye and I think he will make up into a very interesting horse this season. Jazz Beat is a Darshaan colt that won at Gowran and is another I like," he said.
"I don't think we will be over strong at the beginning. The two year olds and the three year olds are relatively backward but the old reliables like Tarry Flynn are forward.
"Tarry Flynn has won the Lincolnshire twice already but he is in good form and I would expect him to run a big race again," Weld added.
Those looking for possible future classic hints, however, will be focusing on the Listed Betdaq Loughbrown Stakes where Century City has just three opponents.
The Danzig colt won the Houghton at Newmarket in the second of his two starts but didn't look the speedy sort of animal that usually typifies his sire's stock.
What Century City will make of the ground which is forecast "soft to heavy" but which was reported "dead" by those who walked it yesterday is also open to debate. With the positive fitness reports from the Oxx camp, maybe the Gowran winner Barring Order can stretch him.
The Seattle Slew colt Tomahawk is, reputedly, the likely answer to the first race of the new season while the early season specialist, Master Papa, will be fancied by many in the Madrid Handicap.
Tiger Royal looks the safest bet in the sprint handicap but the Lincolnshire will be a much more problematic race for the punters to work out.
Tarry Flynn is the race specialist but 9-11 in such testing conditions is a huge task even for this handicapper.
In contrast Mr Houdini has been dropped 3lb from his last start in a Listed race at Leopardstown where he didn't get the run of the race behind Shoal Creek. The Hughes horse could be the answer to the season's first major teaser.
Meanwhile, Moscow Express takes a massive drop in class for today's Royals Chase at Navan. The Frances Crowley-trained star ran a blinding race when an unconsidered outsider for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and was only just off the leaders as they came down the hill.
Predictably Best Mate and the rest powered away in the straight but Moscow Express still managed an honourable seventh.
His only danger today will surely be what he might have taken out of himself at the festival but Crowley is happy he is ready to go again.
On the weekend the Flat gets underway, Brigade Charge might even be an appropriate winner of the novice chase considering he is a product of the Triple Crown winner Affirmed and the 1981 1,000 Guineas heroine Fairy Footsteps.
An Modh Direach is set to try and notch up a fifth win in a row in the two-mile handicap chase and will be no back number despite an 8lb hike for running out a 10-length winner at Punchestown.
