Hopes are high that ease in the ground at The Curragh this weekend can pave the way for Godolphin three-year-old Belardo to return to winning ways in Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Hopes are high that ease in the ground at The Curragh this weekend can pave the way for Godolphin three-year-old Belardo to return to winning ways in Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Trainer Roger Varian has warned that it would be foolish to sell the colt short simply on the evidence of his eighth behind Muhaarar in the seven-furlong Greenham Stakes at Newbury last month.
"You can't write him off after one run, especially as the ground was very quick at Newbury, and he never let himself down on it," Varian said.
"He didn't have a hard race in the Greenham. He's a fresh horse. His work had been excellent leading up to that race and has been excellent since," the trainer reported.
Belardo was brilliant in winning last year's Dewhurst Stakes on soft ground on the Rowley Mile in October. The 'Good to Firm' going on 2,000 Guineas day was never going to suit him, and connections wisely by-passed the first English Classic of the season.
Now the Lope De Vega colt is set to meet Gleneagles, the impressive Guineas winner, at The Curragh, which provides a one-mile test of an entirely different type to Newmarket. Ballydoyle have stuck to their original plan to keep Gleneagles to one mile, rather than be tempted into having a crack at the Investec Derby.
The Richard Hannon-trained Ivawood, who finished third in the Greenham and third in the Guineas, is also in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and provides a good yardstick for his generation. He ran in most of the major juvenile races last year -- winning several of them -- and has been similarly competitive as a three-year-old.
He, too, was beaten in the Greenham earlier in the year but has maintained an impressive level of consistency.
In Sunday's Irish 1,000 Guineas, Ballydoyle rely on Found, who missed the Newmarket Guineas in favour of a G3 race over seven furlongs at The Curragh the following day. The fact that she was beaten -- albeit by a four-year-old outsider -- indicates she may not have peaked that weekend in any case.
Judged on her G1 win at Longchamp last October, Found will be a formidable opponent.
Raydara beat Lucida in the Debutante Stakes at The Curragh last August and has not been seen since. But trainer Michael Halford is bullish about her chances, reporting that she has completed a good preparation for this first race of the campaign.
Godolphin entry Devonshire chased home Kissed By Angels at Leopardstown on May 10. She has a string of good runs to her credit already in seven outings to date.
Her trainer Willie McCreery commented: "I'm very happy with her, she has been working well and I believe running her in the Irish 1,000 Guineas is the right thing to do."
