IRISH GUINEAS - SUNDAY: MAD ABOUT You is the only one of the 13 fillies lining up for tomorrow's Boylesports Irish 1,000 Guineas that has yet to race this year. But anyone ruling her out because of that could end up ruing a piece of classic madness.
Clearly anyone who thinks that Dermot Weld won't have Mad About You ready for the race hasn't been paying attention to the white-hot form the Curragh trainer has been in this season, or indeed a 1,000 Guineas pedigree that already boasts winners in Princes Polly (1982), Trusted Partner (1988) and Nightime two years ago. Weld also throws Carribean Sunset into the fray with the top British jockey Ryan Moore a significant booking. She looks likely to run her usual game race but Mad About You, with Moyglare's retained rider Pat Smullen on board, could be another notch up again.
It's immensely encouraging that she is already a winner on fast ground and that her Prix Marcel Boussac third last year ties her form in with Zarkava, clearly the top three-year-old filly in Europe right now.
Weld and Smullen have always held Mad About You in high regard and her form last year also ties in with Saoirse Abu when she was an unlucky third in the Moyglare.
Saoirse Abu herself ran a fine third to Naratoga at Newmarket and is a clear contender at a course at which she has already won a pair of Group Ones. However, ante-post betting has favoured the Newmarket fifth Nahoodh, who was definitely unlucky three weeks ago but maybe not so unlucky to have justified the flak that Richard Hughes picked up.
Backing unlucky horses is an expensive pastime usually and it looked like Nahoodh made much of her own trouble at Newmarket by hitting a flat spot at halfway. A muddling pace added to the mayhem behind Naratoga and it could end up being a race not to place complete trust in.
On that basis, Halfway To Heaven's third to Zarkava at Longchamp in the French Guineas looks significant but Kitty Matcham still appears to be the Ballydoyle first choice.
In the circumstances then, Mad About You's blank 2008 canvas looks appealing.
Tomorrow's other Group One prize, the Tattersalls Gold Cup, has six runners but looks a match between last year's 1,000 Guineas heroine Finsceal Beo and Duke Of Marmalade, who broke his top-flight duck in last month's Prix Ganay.
Aidan O'Brien's four-year-old looks a different horse this year and still on the upgrade after physical problems were ironed out over the winter. Finsceal Beo ran a race in Dubai that suggests the mile and a quarter won't be a problem but her male rival looks in the form to win.
Toirneach is one of just two fillies lining up for the Group Three Gallinule Stakes but she should appreciate the step up to a mile and a quarter after a good run behind Carribean Sunset and Katiyra at Leopardstown.
There will Irish jumping interest in Paris today where Pomme Tiepy leads a strong Willie Mullins team at Auteuil. Ruby Walsh's mount lines up for the €820,000 Grand Steeple-chase de Paris, France's version of the Gold Cup.
Pomme Tiepy is one of 16 runners that also includes the 2006 winner Princesse D'Anjou, who will again be ridden by Philip Carberry.
Mullins runs three in the Grade Two Prix La Barka, Cooldine (Walsh), Scotsirish (Davy Condon) and Jayo (David Casey), a traditional trial for the French Champion Hurdle in June. The champion trainer also runs Hurricane Fly in the Grade Three Prix de Longchamp.
