Pat Smullen sights set on half-century on home soil

Free Eagle heads Pat Smullen’s enviable book of Royal Ascot rides next week but, first, the champion jockey aims to reach the half-century mark for the season in Ireland this weekend with Carla Bianca his most notable ride in tomorrow’s Group Three Cork feature.

Smullen has set a storming pace in pursuit of his eighth title and his tally of 48 is twice that of nearest rival Colin Keane. With Dermot Weld on top of the trainers table, and rapidly closing in on €1 million for the season, the Curragh 'old firm' head to Ascot in rare form and with a number of Group One targets although uncertainty still reigns over Forgotten Rules' Gold Cup participation.

The unbeaten ante-post favourite is among 19 still left in Thursday’s marathon highlight after the six-day stage but Weld has repeatedly stressed Forgotten Rules will swerve it if ground conditions are too quick.

Aidan O’Brien has left in the recent Savel Beg Stakes winner Kingfisher and reported: “He’s come out of his last race well and we’re looking forward to stepping him up in trip.”

The uncertainty over whether or not Forgotten Rules lines up has encouraged connections to supplement Chester Cup winner Trip To Paris at almost €48,000 while last year's Irish Leger hero Brown Panther is set for another Gold Cup tilt.

Ed Dunlop, trainer of Trip To Paris, said: "It's a hefty sum of money but he's a young progressive stayer who enjoys quick ground. If all the principals turn up we have plenty to find but in all likelihood there will be a few significant defections."

The Coolmore team have also paid out a near-€20,000 fee to get their Gallinule Stakes winner Curvy into next week’s Ribblesdale Stakes, a Group 2 prize that will see Jim Bolger’s Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Pleascach carry Godolphin’s colours for the first time.

A total of 14 remain in the Ribblesdale, a race Bolger won with Banimpire in 2011, while Aidan O’Brien has three left, including the highly rated Words who features among just four lining up for Sunday’s €75,000 Munster Oaks in Cork.

Banimpire landed this before doubling up in the Ribblesdale just four days later, prior to only just losing out in the Irish Oaks the following month.

Similar top-flight aspirations appear to be held for Words, a daughter of an Irish Oaks winner herself, who impressed on her sole career start a year ago.

The supplementary action hasn’t been confined to Ascot this week and the Moyglare Stud team were encouraged to add Carla Bianca to the Munster Oaks last Tuesday.

That has helped turn a race that has cut up badly in terms of quantity into an intriguing contest of quality with the Blandford third Roheryn hardly out of it either.

It will be a first attempt at a mile and a half for Carla Bianca who wound up last season with a Group Three win over nine furlongs at the Curragh but has won twice at a mile and a quarter and, most significantly, thrives on very fast ground which she looks set to get.

An odds-on flop behind Legatissimo at Gowran in April can be seen in a different light considering the latter's classic exploits since but the Weld team seemed to have a rare lull in form around that time too and Carla Bianca can bounce back in style this weekend.

Cork's other black-type event is the Listed Midsummer Sprint for which English trainer Paul Midgeley sends both Line Of Reason and Monsieur Joe with Joseph O'Brien booked for the latter.

Monsieur Joe ran a fine race on quick going at Epsom last weekend, and that liking for quick conditions can give him an edge over another English hope, Mirza.

Smullen has four ridesl at Cork, plus three at Navan on Saturday, and Clifton Miss could be one to go in for him in one of the Cork handicaps.