NO shortage of prize money on offer down in Cork tomorrow, where there is €170,000 split between the three feature races, the Group Three Munster Oaks, the Cork Derby and the Listed Midsummer Sprint Stakes.
The Oaks manages to attract just four runners.Aidan O’Brien had six left in at the last forfeit stage and runs Words, making a belated reappearance after taking her Curragh maiden last June.
Dermot Weld supplemented Carla Bianca for this earlier in the week and she has to give weight to all.
Her chief opponent might be Roheryn, who is Ger Lyons-trained and was successful, at her fourth attempt, in a Wexford maiden last season.
She has come on a bit from that, won a Listed race at Leopardstown a year ago, and ran second to Eye Of A Storm there in a Group Three in August.
To my way of reading things, she doesn’t compare with Carla Bianca, who ran up a sequence of four wins, including a Group Three and two Listed races, last summer.
The €45,000 sprint draws three challengers from Britain in Mirza, from Rae Guest’s Newmarket stable, and a pair, Monsieur Joe and Line Of Reason, from Yorkshire trainer Paul Midgley’s yard.
Monsieur Joe was only beaten a length by Desert Law in last Saturday’s Epsom dash and Joseph O’Brien renews a partnership with him, although Line of Reason would be on a par with him at his best, while Mirza is also at the same level.
Best of the home brigade might be Russian Soul but he’s a moody old character these days.
Monsieur Joe gets 3lb from Mirza and that should swing matters in his favour.
The Cork Derby is a four-year-old-and-up handicap with a 99-rated top weight in Jessica Harrington’s Steps To Freedom.
It looks as though Donnacha O’Brien has jocked elder brother Joseph off Ballybacka Queen and she’ll benefit from the 7lb claim.
There’s a race in Maskoon and despite an indifferent run at the Curragh last time he remains of interest. He’s Kevin Prendergast’s only runner at the meeting and might give us a run.
Worth Avenue is interesting in the 47-65 mile and Anonymouse Lady has her chance against Ostatnia and Showcard in the sprint handicap.
Racing Shorts:
Mick Channon feels all that Malabar needs is the rub of the green as she bids for top honours in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly tomorrow.
Malabar has competed with credit in Group One races on her last four starts without quite making the first three.
Fourth in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, the Prix Marcel Boussac and the Qipco 1000 Guineas, she was eighth in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh where she was beaten only six lengths.
However, Malabar’s luck was out in the draw as she is out wide in stall 14, but that has been tempered by fellow British raider, John Gosden’s Musidora scorer Star Of Seville being allotted number 15 and the favourite, the Freddy Head-trained Queen’s Jewel, widest of all in 17.
“That’s the draw we’ve been given so we’ve just got to get on with it and be as positive as we can,” said Channon.
“The filly is in great form and I just hope nothing else goes wrong. She’s been a bit unlucky up to now.
“If you look at the big fillies’ race last year that Found won (Marcel Boussac) she got no kind of run. She ran well first time out this year, but then got knocked at the elbow in Ireland and ended up being beaten the same distance by Found as she was in France.
“I’m sure she’ll come right one day. At the moment she just needs that little bit of luck in running.”
n Raucous overcame early signs of greenness to make a winning debut in the British Stallion Studs Visit unibet.co.uk EBF Maiden Stakes at Sandown yesterday.
In a race won 12 months ago by subsequent July Stakes and Richmond Stakes winner Ivawood, the William Haggas-trained two-year-old only needed to be pushed out to see off his sole rival A Momentofmadness in the five-furlong contest.
Holding a slender advantage from the outset, the 30/100 favourite was shaken up by Ryan Moore inside the final two furlongs before drawing smartly clear to put three-and-three-quarter lengths between himself and the runner-up.
Maureen Haggas, wife of the winning trainer, said: “We learnt very little there. He was very green and looked at everything along the way.
“He still looks leggy and weak, but they have been happy with him at home and he must have shown something otherwise they would not have run him.”
Gay Kelleway’s Zebstar is one of 22 juveniles entered for the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot next Thursday.
A winner of a Newmarket maiden on his only start to date, the Zebedee colt had been due to go to the Goffs London sale on the eve of the meeting, but so impressive was his work yesterday that his owners, Northern Line Racing, have decided to gamble and live the dream.
“We haven’t run him since his debut as we had a plan, the maiden and then the Norfolk, and we didn’t want to waver,” said Kelleway.
“You can run these two-year-olds too much.
“We have other races in mind for him like the July Stakes and the Prix Morny, he’s a good horse, we know what we have.
“The only thing is he wouldn’t want the ground rattling quick, he had to have two weeks off after he won his maiden, we nearly didn’t run him then. It will be a late call.”
