2,000 GUINEAS PREVIEW:JOHNNY MURTAGH has yet to hit the Group One mark this year but he can make up for a relatively slow start to the campaign with Mastercraftsman in line to be the first leg of a rare double for the top jockey in today's Boylesports Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Only two riders have ever completed the Curragh Guineas double in the same year and the last of them was Joe Canty in 1946. With the ride on tomorrow’s 1,000 Guineas favourite Again waiting for him, Murtagh will fancy his chances of emulating Canty and Martin Quirke in 1929 if Mastercraftsman can come out on top today.
The one certainty of this weekend is all three Group One races on offer are set to be dominated by the testing ground conditions that at one stage even looked like putting the entire Curragh Guineas festival under threat.
Very few horses thrive on this forecast heavy ground but the ability to adapt to it will be priceless and that looks like being Mastercraftsman’s trump card.
Europe’s champion juvenile of 2008 ran the gamut last year, landing the Phoenix Stakes on firm and then narrowly holding Shaweel in the National Stakes on heavy.
His first start of 2009 was at Newmarket, where he met some interference before finishing fifth to Sea The Stars.
Like most of Aidan O’Brien’s three-year-olds recently, significant improvement can be expected for that first run of the season.
Delegator did best of the rest behind Sea The Stars but this sort of going is an unknown for Irish-born Brian Meehan’s colt.
In the circumstances, then, Rayeni’s love of testing ground could make him a live contender to complete John Oxx’s Irish Classic CV.
Another to consider is Recharge whose dam Rebelline relished the soft in landing the 2002 Tattersalls Gold Cup but overall, Mastercraftsmanlooks the safest Classic option.
Most operations would have entertained Classic aspirations for Bushranger at the start of the season, but the power of Coolmore means that last year’s dual-Group One winner has been kept in reserve for a sprint campaign this year.
Bushranger reappears in today’s Weatherbys Greenlands Stakes where the Prix Morny and Middle Park winner is rated to beat his elders.
However, he looked a precocious two-year-old and could be vulnerable to tough older sprinters like Utmost Respectwho was a Group One fourth last year in the Prix Maurice Du Gheest.
Beach Bunnyalso has good form on soft ground when chasing home Katiyra over 10 furlongs here last September. That proven stamina will be useful in the Group Three over a mile.
Aidan O'Brien's decision to drop Air Chief Marshallback to the five furlongs of the Marble Hill Stakes after the colt won over seven on heavy ground at Gowran looks significant.
