JOHNNY MURTAGH may be in Group One action at Newmarket this afternoon but it is no surprise he makes the dash back for Dundalk’s floodlit fixture where Mastercraftsman goes on trial for the Breeders’ Cup.

The Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner takes on 11 opponents in the Group Three Diamond Stakes and Aidan O’Brien said: “We are running to see how he handles the surface with a view to running in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”

Muhannak won at Dundalk last year before landing the Marathon race at Santa Anita but he was a proven performer on synthetic surfaces.

This will be Mastercraftsman’s first time on the all-weather but it will be a major surprise if he can’t cope and win his third race of the year.

Earlier Murtagh is on the Curragh winner Song Of My Heart in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket where David Wachman’s filly takes on top classic prospects like Lady Of The Desert and the French star Special Duty.

Murtagh’s big rival for the jockeys championship Pat Smullen is also criss-crossing the Irish Sea today and will ride Tracey Collins’s Arctic for the first time in the Middle Park Stakes.

Smullen takes over from Pat Shanahan on the supplementary entry as he has ridden for Australian owner Richard Pegum in the past, including on Muhannak in last year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Arctic has been impressive on two starts at the Curragh but now faces impressive horses like the Gimcrack-winner Showcasing, the Champagne-victor Poets Voice and Awzaan, who landed the Mill Reef on his last start. “It is going to be different ground from the Curragh for Arctic but people forget he has won on firm this year too. It wasn’t difficult to take the decision to supplement. He has definitely improved for his last run,” Collins said yesterday.

Today’s other Irish fixture is an all-National Hunt meeting at Gowran Park and it could see the high-class handicap chaser On The Other Hand follow up a Listowel victory over the smaller obstacles in the three-mile handicap hurdle.