top three-year-olds at Leopardstown and Longchamp

there are 3 poor jumps meetings in the U.K. today, and more of the same at Killarney; much more exciting are the high class flat cards at Leopardstown and, even better, at Longchamp, where the first two French classics of 2012 will be run.
The Poule d´Essai des Pouliches at 15.40 CET, the local equivalent of the1,000 Guineas, has one of the hottest favourites of the day in Beauty Parlour (Elie Lellouche/ Christophe Soumillon), who has been an impressive winner of her 3 starts to date and looks almost unbeatable here. Aidan O´Brien, who has dominated the 3yo scene so far saddles two fillies Up, with his son Joseph aboard, and After (Colm O´Donoghue), but they do not look good enough and much more dangerous is Petite Noblesse (Andre Fabre/ Maxime Guyon), who is also owned by the "Coolmore mafia" and looks the only conceivable danger to the favourite. We would like to see the Munich hope Chica Loca (Michael Figge/ FX Bertras) run well, but she has a mountain to climb here.
A Munich victory is much more likely in the colts race half an hour later, as the favourite Dabirsim (Christophe Ferland/ Soumillon) is owned by Simon Springer, also the boss of oneXtwo. Dabirsim was champion juvenile in Europe last year after winning all his 5 races, but controversially lost his unbeaten record in the Prix de Fontainebleau when touched off by Dragon Pulse (Mikel Delzangles/ Gregory Benoist) after an error of judgment by the jockey. Dragon Pulse is fancied to repeat that win, but we are confident that Dabirsim will turn the tables this time. More danger could come from the O´Brien supplementary entry Furners Green, while Coupe de Ville (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes), fifth in last week´s Guineas at Newmarket, is also expected to run well.
Also at Longchamp we expect to see Andre Fabre´s Monsun colt Masterstroke maintain his unbeaten record in the Prix Hocquart at 14.30 and Zantenda make a successful switch to sprinting in the Prix St.Georges at 17.15.
Aidan O´Brien is also strongly represented in the big races at Leopardstown. He has 2 of the 5 runners in the Derby trial at 16.45, with Wrote (Ryan Moore) clearly his main hope. Light Heavy (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) looks a serious threat.and the Bolger/ Manning team can also take the 1,000 Guineas trial at 16.15 with Alla Speranza and defeat the two O´Brien runners in that race. Best thing here is Famous Name (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) who can record his 10th course victory in the Amethyst Stakes at 15.45.