RACING/Irish preview: Bellewstown may no longer fill the important role it did in the 18th century when it was it was one of those courses selected by the Government to stage a King's Plate, but the managers of the day would have envied the problem faced by their 21st century successors of such a glut of runners that they are forced to put on a second successive eight-race card.

In that stage of the development of Irish racing the Royal Plates were the equivalent of today's Group One races and although by the time I attended Bellewstown for the first time that prestige no longer existed there was still a Royal Plate on the programme.

This was in 1946 when postwar racing resumed and His Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas was won by Lady Antoinette.

She belonged to Percy Reynolds, someone whose name has been figuring on the news pages of The Irish Times this week as the one-time managing director of the United Dublin Tram Company.

Quite the most remarkable winners that year were Hatton's Grace and Freebooter as this pair was destined to go on and win three Champion Hurdles and a Liverpool Grand National respectively.

You can take it from me that no such future glory awaits any of today's winners but punters will happily settle for a first and last-race association double made up of the Kevin Prendergast-trained Crested Pochard (5.30) and the Charlie Swan-trained Shannon Rose (9.00); Charlie having served his apprenticeship with Kevin.

Limerick has an all-flat programme this evening which means that Irish racing will be figuring on the Attheraces television coverage every 15 minutes between 5.30 and 9.0.

The most valuable race on an all-sponsored programme is the Chesser Auctioneers Race. And here the most highly rated of the five runners is the Dermot Weld-trained Favourite Nation (6.45).

So far this season he has failed to reproduce his two-year-old form when after running Moscow Ballet close on his debut at Tipperary, he won his next start by six lengths from Caparo.

This could restore his confidence and he may have most to fear from John Oxx's Azarouak.