John Murtagh may be hunting for bigger fish at Ascot this afternoon as his mount Daliapour tries to bring the mighty Montjeu down to size in the King George but the direct result could be that he misses out on a Group pot at home.
Takali takes on five opponents in the Meld Stakes in a bid to try and continue trainer John Oxx's excellent record in the Curragh's 10-furlong event. The local trainer has won the Meld four times in the 1990s, all with Aga Khan-owned horses, and Takali looks up to becoming the fifth.
Certainly the Kris colt will be no 200 to 1 shot as he was when pressed into pacemaking service for Sinndar in the Irish Derby. Takali did his job admirably too, running second for much of the race and only fading to fifth in the closing stages.
Despite being used in such a fashion it was encouraging to see him perform more or less to the pound with Glyndebourne on Gallinule Stakes form and it was enough to see Takali rated at 109.
That actually puts him 1lb ahead of Jammaal who finished eight lengths clear of the Oxx horse in a Listed race earlier this year and indicates Takali is still improving. It's debatable if the same can be said for Jammaal who had some good two-year-old form; while the female branch of the two-pronged Ballydoyle attack, Alluring, has some good form to her credit.
A bigger danger could indeed be the other Aidan O'Brien runner Urban Ocean who escapes a 3lb penalty for having won a Group three last season but faces a half mile drop in trip from his run behind Pairumani Star.
Niall McCullagh can step profitably into Murtagh's place on Takali and with Michael Kinane on Montjeu, another rider who can make hay while the first choice is away is Seamus Heffernan.
The expensive Shakespeare will probably be a warm order in the concluding Connell Race but Heffernan can hit the black type mark when he is legged on to Modigliani in the Listed Flame Of Tara Tyros Stakes.
The Danzig colt won the first race of the season back in March and then was just run out of it in the closing stages of Royal Ascot's Coventry Stakes when third to CD Europe.
But Modigliani will have to be at his best to cope with a very decent field that includes the Tipperary winner Always Rainbows and Blixen who put the highly touted Freud to the sword on her debut.
The Ballydoyle hope La Vida Loca reverts to five furlongs for the opener despite having held a Killarney entry over a mile two weeks ago when a late non-runner and maybe Patinham can go one better than her debut second to Dietrich at Tipperary.
