Yeats gets back on course

News: Yeats makes his return to the racecourse at the Curragh this afternoon and despite coming on the back of a huge classic winning weekend for Aidan O'Brien the trainer will surely still retain some little sense of "if only" about his comeback star.

A success here at two was enough to make Yeats favourite for the 2004 Derby and that position wasn't threatened with victories last year in Leopardstown's two established trials for Epsom.

The Sadler's Wells colt looked all set to follow in the footsteps of Galileo and High Chaparral but just three days before the Derby he was scratched after a muscle problem on his near-hind side between a hip and the backbone proved too much.

He hasn't been seen since but O'Brien reported last week that Yeats returned to work before the end of the 2004 season and has had a perfectly clear run this year ahead of today's run in the Group Three Mooresbridge Stakes. Just three take him on and strictly on the figures Yeats has a big job to take on the Presidential runner Cairdeas. That Group Two Derrinstown Trial success means that Yeats has to concede 7lb to Cairdeas who theoretically has 5lb in hand as a result.

O'Brien gives the $1.5 million purchase Emerald Cat a second career start in the other Group Three, the Tetrarch Stakes, where he will tackle the Loughbrown and Greenham winner Indesatchel.

David Wachman's colt has been a bit of a revelation in his two three-year-old starts and the combination of soft ground and seven furlongs look to fit Indesatchel like a glove.

Emerald Cat is being spoken of as a possible contender for the French 2,000 Guineas and there was real promise about his debut success at Leopardstown.

Kieren Fallon is a fan of the colt and that might not change today even if Indesatchel proves too good this time.