GROUND CONDITIONS are likely to get worse before they get better at the Curragh ahead of Sunday’s Darley Irish Oaks but local trainer Dermot Weld is resolutely pointing his star filly Princess Highway towards what would be a 20th major classic success.
Weld has a doorstep view of the racecourse where the going yesterday was “soft to heavy” after another morning when rain lashed Irish racing’s HQ.
The Curragh manager Paul Hensey reported that of the last 54 days, yesterday was the 50th to see rain fall on the track but he doesn’t anticipate problems with this weekend’s classic fixture.
It is five years since the Saturday fixture of the Oaks weekend had to be sacrificed due to the weather but a decent forecast for later in the week is encouraging hopes that the 2012 Oaks festival will be incident free.
“There is a lot of rain about on Wednesday and we have our fingers crossed that we will avoid the worst of it in Kildare,” Hensey said yesterday. “But for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we are being told to expect good, dry, bright days. If the forecast is correct I wouldn’t have any worries at all.”
The Derby festival a few weeks ago was run on very testing ground and there appears to be no let-up on that score for the fillies classic. “It’s likely we are going to be soft for Sunday. Hopefully it won’t be heavy. But there has been no let up. The ground-staff are doing a wonderful job and one of them told me we have had rain on 50 of the last 54 days. You’d have to say we are due a break,” Hensey added.
Aidan O’Brien’s Epsom Oaks winner Was is among a group of high-profile candidates set to remain in the classic after today’s important forfeit stage where John Gosden’s Lancashire Oaks heroine, Great Heavens, is likely to be supplemented into the race at a cost of €40,000.
The sister to the King George and Eclipse winner Nathaniel is a proven soft-ground performer and while Princess Highway may prefer a better surface, the Ribblesdale winner is still on target to step up to Group One company.
The Moyglare Stud-owned star beat Was in the Group Three Blue Wind Stakes at Naas in May and followed up in Royal Ascot’s Group Two when she romped six lengths clear of The Fugue.
“Princess Highway is in great form. We would prefer a dry week as she would rather better ground but she is a definite runner,” Dermot Weld said yesterday. “She’s in good form and she’s all set. We’d like the weather to pick up because she’s a filly with a lot of pace but she handled that ground at Ascot and she’s very adaptable.”
It’s over two years since Weld last won a classic, with Bethrah in the Curragh 1,000 Guineas. That brought his Irish classic tally to 15. He has also won the 2,000 Guineas and the Oaks in England, the French Leger with Vinnie Roe and famously America’s Belmont Stakes with Go And Go. Weld has already won the Irish Oaks twice.
“It would be lovely and be our third time if we could win it. Classics are hard to win and they don’t come easy, so we are well aware of that,” he added.
Weld’s Group One winning filly Emulous is among 11 left in Saturday’s Group Three KARE Minstrel Stakes, a race that could see the return to racing of Aidan O’Brien’s former top class sprinter Starspangledbanner.
After a hugely successful career in Australia, the chestnut horse had five runs in Europe for O’Brien in 2010, including a pair of Group One wins in the July Cup and the Golden Jubilee Stakes.
However, after retiring to stud, Starspangledbanner reportedly suffered fertility problems and he has been back in training at Ballydoyle for some months.
