It’s Classic season but Sunday’s Naas action has a different focus with its ‘Royal Ascot Trials Day’ billing, albeit history shows the two elements can get linked in the longer term.
The Coolmore Fillies’ Sprint Stakes is one of a pair of Group Three prizes up for grabs and can boast a trio of subsequent Classic winners – Mother Earth (2020), Alpha Centauri (2017) and Sky Lantern (2012) – on its roll of honour in the last decade.
It also lived up to what it says on the tin a year ago as Mediate scored en route to victory at the following month’s Ascot extravaganza.
For once, Aidan O’Brien doesn’t have a runner, although his sons Joseph and Donnacha are represented by debut winners.
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Another filly that won on her debut is Ribchestina who emerged on top over course and distance for Sheila Lavery last month.
She now has a first run for new trainer Paddy Twomey after being purchased by the Team Valor operation. They teamed with Twomey, who saddled the runner-up to Ribchestina last month, to win at Group One level with La Petite Coco in 2022.
The earlier Sole Power Sprint will see the Group Two winner Mooneista have a first start for Joseph O’Brien. Bought by Australian connections for 850,000 guineas last year, the ex-Jack Davison trained mare looks favoured by the race conditions.
Ryan Moore is on The Antarctic in the Group Three Lacken Stakes where he should be suited by better ground conditions than on his seasonal debut. In the opener, the English rider has opted for River Tiber, who also faces very different going compared to his 10-length winning debut.
The Irish Classic campaign will begin at the Curragh next weekend and it emerged on Friday that the Newmarket heroine Mawj will not attempt a 1,000 Guineas double. She will instead wait for Ascot’s Coronation Stakes.
That race also remains an alternative option for Dermot Weld’s Tahiyra, who finished runner-up to Mawj at Newmarket.
There is Classic action in the US on Saturday with the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore due off a minute after midnight.
Kentucky Derby winner Mage will try to follow up his Churchill Downs success a fortnight ago and there’s Irish interest in the race too as Derry rider Fergal Lynch teams up with the 20-1 outsider, Perform, in the seven-runner field.
Lynch, 45, the former champion apprentice in Britain, was banned from riding cross-channel for nearly six years after admitting to stopping a horse winning at Ripon in 2004.
He has subsequently carved out a career mostly riding in the US and has a chance to secure a breakthrough success on the Shug McGaughey-trained runner.
Godolphin’s First Mission was ruled out of the race on Friday due to a late injury, leaving Mage a general odds-on favourite to follow up his Derby victory under jockey Javier Castellano.
Bookmakers reckon the Bob Baffert hope National Treasure is his big threat. Baffert currently holds a joint-record seven wins in the Preakness.
He was unable to saddle runners at Churchill Downs due to a two-year suspension by the track authorities there following the disqualification of the ill-fated 2021 Derby winner, Medina Spirit, after a positive drug test.
