Irish flat season opens

although there have been a couple of all-weather meetings at Dundalk, today´s high-class meeting at the Curragh marks the official opening of the 2008 Irish flat season. The card includes the first Irish 2yo race of the year as well as seeing Aidan O `Briens´s first runners of the year. Main event is the Group Three mile race for fillies and mares at 16.55 CET, and although it is open to older horses as well, the 3yo fillies seem set to dominate. Aidan O´Brien´s Savethisdanceforme (Johnny Murtagh) looked very promising when showing tremendous improvement last autumn, but Jim Bolger´s Lush Lashes (Kevin manning) is a dangerous opponent. She won her only start last year with the greatest of ease - and that was the Goffs Fillies Million, the richest race of the season for 2yo fillies. The big betting race is the Irish Lincolnshire, a mile handicap at 17.30, and a wide-open event with 27 runners. French challenger Estrela Brage (John Hammond/ Declan McDonogh) looked a handicap snip here when the field was published on Friday, but the Irish handicapper has had a change of mind and yesterday put him up by 9lbs. However he might still prove good enough, although it is no longer so easy. The 6 furlongs handicap at 16.25 could well go to a British stable, with Northern Dare (David and Adrian Nicholls) and Karl Burke´s German-bred Raptor (Fergus Sweeney) both holding good chances. Raptor has been running over a mile, but this trip seemed ideal when he was in training with Mario Hofer 2 years ago. There is also Irish N.H. racing today at the Northern Irish track of Downpatrick.