Irish flat season opens at the Curragh

after we had the first French group race of the year yesterday, it is now Ireland´s turn with the opening of the flat season at the Curragh, with the Group Three Park Express Stakes for fillies and mares over a mile at 17.05 CET the main event. As group races go, this is a pretty poor race and it can go to Lolly for Dolly (Tommy Stack/ Wayne Lordan) from a stable that usually starts the season with a bang. On her 2yo form, when she won the Moyglare, Termagent (Kevin Prendergast/ Declan McDonough) must have a great chance, but she has not run since finishing 9th (beaten only 5 lengths) in the Irish 1,000 Guineas last May. Aidan O´Brien´s Gemstone (Colm O´Donoghue) looks the best of the 3yo´s here.
There is rather surprisingly a strong British challenge here and both Richard Fahey and Kevin Ryan have several runners. In the Irish Lincolnshire over a mile at 17.35 Ryan has 3 runners, including Steed (Phillip Makin), who has won his last 5 races; however they were all in modest events at Wolverhampton and Southwell, and on jockey bookings Blue Moon (Neil Callan), who has also done well over the winter, can be preferred. Fahey´s Our Joe, with champion jockey Paul Hanagan aboard, is a big threat, while the very lightly-raced Photo Opportunity (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) looks best of the locals.
Fahey and Hanagan can start the day by winning the opening 2yo race at 15.35 with Lost City, owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, and they also have chances in the 6 furlongs handicap an hour later; however here we prefer Tommy Stack´s bottom-weight Blue Dahlia. The Madrid Handicap for 3yo´s over 7 furlongs at 18.05 is usually won by a decent performer and John Oxx´ only runner of the day Adilapour (Johnny Murtagh) could be the answer, although Qubuh (Weld/ Smullen) is an obvious danger.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Whip Rule - Pinkisthecolour - Lost City
2. Race: Rose Bonheur - Anderiego - Sun Queen
3. Race: Luisant - Libano - Blue Dahlia
4. Race: Lolly For Dolly - Termagant - Gemstone
5. Race: Photo Opportunity - Our Joe Mac - Steed
6. Race: Adilapour - When Not Iff - Eirnin
7. Race: Quest For Peace - Jolie Jioconde - Claiomh Solais