THE SEA The Stars team of John Oxx and Michael Kinane also have a prime candidate for today’s Group One feature at the Curragh, the Audi Pretty Polly Stakes, but almost all the evidence points to Katiyra having to give best against Look Here.
Last year’s Epsom Oaks heroine is joined by Dar Re Mi in a cross-sea challenge for the mile-and-a-quarter highlight, which also includes the triple-Group One winner Lush Lashes.
But Jim Bolger’s hugely-versatile filly is on something of a retrieval mission, having failed to fire at Royal Ascot, so for many the principal line of home defence will be provided by Katiyra.
The Aga Khan-owned four-year-old was placed twice in Group One company last year, including finishing over five lengths off Look Here at Epsom, and managed to land the Group Two Blandford Stakes over this course and distance.
Significant improvement is expected this season, but this will still be her first start of the season and the bare formbook facts tell us she has ground to make up on Look Here.
There is also the impression that Look Here may be an exceptionally versatile performer herself. For a horse which got within three lengths of Conduit in the St Leger, it is significant that her trainer, Ralph Beckett, is coming round to a line of thinking that suggests a mile-and-a-quarter may be her optimum trip.
As a classic winner at a mile-and-a-half, and one who failed by only a couple of noses to Ask and Youmzain in the Coronation Cup earlier this month, that would make today’s race almost tailor-made for Look Here.
Beckett has impressed in his short career with his ability to get one right for a big date, while jockey Seb Sanders has Group One form around the Curragh, having landed the 2,000 Guineas on Bachelor Duke here in 2004.
Today’s main support, the Group Three At The Races Curragh Cup, also has an overseas challenger in Luca Cumani’s Mad Rush, but in a tight five-runner contest it could be worth betting that ground conditions at headquarters have worked in favour of the Oxx hope Alandi.
An impressive winner of the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan on very testing ground, the lightly-raced four-year-old didn’t look completely happy on much faster going at Leopardstown in the Savel Beg and failed in a close finish to Hindu Kush.
An ease in the surface today should suit much better, and while Alandi does have to improve to cope with figures in the book from Mad Rush and Profound Beauty, he still looks on the upgrade.
Johann Zoffany has topweight in the three-year-old handicap but could still play a major part. A run in the King George V at Royal Ascot turned into a disaster as the colt missed the break and then was brought around the field to challenge by young Joseph O’Brien.
The Ballydoyle team can also strike in the concluding maiden with another Royal Ascot also-ran, Totally Devoted.
