RACING: The Indesatchel team are set to pay out €24,000 this morning in order to supplement their colt into Sunday's French 2,000 Guineas at Longchamp.
Trainer David Wachman confirmed yesterday he plans to run the Michael Nolan-owned horse in the Gainsborough Poule D'Essai Des Poulains on Sunday despite some concerns over the going in Paris.
"I'm told the ground is good at the moment and they are watering to keep it good. But there is also some rain forecast for Saturday and Sunday and it looks like we are not going to get firm ground. Good would be fine and the intention is to run," Wachman said.
Indesatchel has contributed handsomely to the young Cashel-based trainer's fine start to the season with a Listed success first time out followed by Group Three victories in both the Greenham at Newbury and the Tetrarch at the Curragh.
All three wins, however, came with some substantial cut in the ground.
Jamie Spencer will again take the mount on Indesatchel. Wachman also said yesterday there is a "fair chance" that his other three-year-old colt, Fracas, will take his chance in the Epsom Derby.
A final decision on what race last Sunday's Derrinstown Trial winner will contest next has yet to be taken, but the prospect of Fracas running over a mile and a half is something Wachman is looking forward to.
"It will be interesting to see what happens in the Dante, and we will have to see how our horse is, but there is a fair chance he will run. We will have to see what the owner and Jamie says, but he deserves to take his chance in a Derby and we will pick the one he has the best chance of winning.
"A mile and a half will be no problem to him. In fact it will be right up his alley. The race on Sunday turned into a sprint and we were probably the ones least suited to that," he said.
Wachman also hasn't ruled out Damson from taking her chance in Sunday week's Boylesports Irish 1,000 Guineas.
The Group One-winning filly came through a workout yesterday and will work again over the weekend. "It was only easy work but everything was good," the trainer said. Damson was ante-post favourite for the Guineas at Newmarket only to scope badly just days before the race.
Aidan O'Brien's tally in the French Guineas races already includes Rose Gypsy's 2001 triumph in the Poule D'Essai Des Pouliches as well as the ill-fated Landseer's success in the colts race the following year.
Silk And Scarlet has been nominated as the likely Ballydoyle runner in Sunday's French 1,000 Guineas while Dark Cheetah and Cougar Cat are both set to run in the 2,000 alongside Indesatchel.
The likely opposition to the Irish team could include last season's champion juvenile Shamardal from the Godolphin team while France's top filly, Divine Proportions, dominates the home team in the 1,000 Guineas.
Aidan O'Brien indicated yesterday that Yehudi is a possible starter in Saturday's PricewaterhouseCoopers Trial at Gowran Park while last weekend's maiden winner, Scorpion, could step up to the Gallinule Stakes over the Guineas weekend at the Curragh.
The most valuable contest at Clonmel this evening is the €20,000 Sporting Press Tipperary Cup which sees the Willie Mullins-trained Raikkonen try to follow up his 2004 success in the race. Raikkonen is 6lbs higher in the ratings for a defeat of Baron de Feypo at Gowran and since then has run a good race over hurdles at Punceshtown behind Mansony.
Paul Carberry is on Camdengreenmachine in the two-mile handicap hurdle and there was more than enough in this one's run behind Brouling at Punchestown - a first start since October - to suggest the jockey has a decent shout.
Fast-improving filly Secret History entered the Epsom Oaks picture after making all to beat Quickfire in the Group Three Tattersalls Musidora Stakes at York yesterday.
Quickfire and favourite Mona Lisa came into the race as possible Classic material, but neither emerged with much credit as the Mark Johnston-trained winner spreadeagled her rivals in the testing ground, bounding five lengths clear of Quickfire at the line, with Play Me staying on for black type in third.
Of the disappointing fourth, Mona Lisa, trainer Aidan O'Brien said: "She just got tired in the soft ground. Obviously I'd thought she'd run better, but she's having a right blow and she'll improve."
O'Brien confirmed that Kitty O'Shea would miss the Oaks as she would not be ready in time. That may well encourage connections to take the Epsom plunge with Virginia Waters and pay the supplementary fee, provided she acquits herself well in the Irish 1,000 Guineas on Saturday week.
