Killarney starts four days with this evening's Vincent O'Brien Ruby Stakes feature and providing the ground remains good, Elleval can strike a blow for the three-year-old crop.
Five of the classic generation take on five older horses in the €40,000 highlight, with Aidan O'Brien's Snow Queen even boasting some classic form with her Newmarket 1,000 Guineas fifth back in May.
Since then, however, she has disgraced herself more than once with slow starts or leaving the stalls late.
Captain Joy is a leading contender among the older horses and finished ahead of Elleval in a Curragh Listed race won by Count Of Liomande last June.
Elleval didn’t get an entirely clear run on that occasion and wasn’t helped by rain-softened ground in the Meld Stakes.
Late rain subsequently meant he was taken out of the Desmond, hardly a surprise with a horse whose two wins have come on an artificial surface and whose best piece of form is a second in the UAE Derby. “He’s been a bit unlucky with the weather,” conceded trainer David Marnane yesterday. “The last twice he’s been to Leopardstown they got rain and the ground went . . . [but] If you go back to his Curragh run he’d have a good chance.”
Fans of the 2014 Derby favourite Free Eagle will hope for another boost to the form of that Leopardstown maiden win by the potential star earlier this month when Kingsfisher lines up for the opening maiden.
His stable-companion Orchestra, runner up at Leopardstown, has since scored at Tipperary. Shalaman is back at the course and distance over which he controversially got a race in the stewards room last month and the application of first-time cheekpieces can help him recoup Curragh losses from the weekend.
The concluding fillies maiden looks very trappy but Alkali is better than her Galway run behind Union Dues suggests and could be a solution.
