RACING/News: Brian O'Connor sets the tone for the Flat season ahead of the annual visit to Aidan O'Brien's yard
Early next week Aidan O'Brien will offer it up for his sins and welcome the media into Ballydoyle for the trial that is the annual Press Day. Yet again it will be a rare peep into the deepest reservoir of blue-blooded potential anywhere in the world for the upcoming Classic year.
The hack pack will be escorted through the sort of security that would have Osama saying to hell with it, and then we will stand around, pretending we know what we're looking at, even though some of us wouldn't know the difference if George Washington or a Charolais bullock walked by.
But neither of you need despair. The Irish Times has worked out the secret to uncovering O'Brien's pecking order among the gleaming array of hundreds of millions of euro worth of horseflesh. When it comes to the real top horses the inscrutable one from Clonroche can't quite overcome the temptation to show them off.
Last year Footstepsinthesand was the one especially paraded around in front of the cameras despite having been a considerably less highly rated two-year- old than both Ad Valorem and Oratorio.
In 2002 it was Hawk Wing and High Chaparral who were pushed into focus. At the time most of us glanced at High Chaparral, who'd won a Racing Post Trophy the previous season in a blaze of indifference, and continued asking questions about the world champion two-year-old Johannesburg. A very silly thing to do.
A year before, O'Brien was in charge of the top 12 juveniles in the Irish rankings but it wasn't the likes of Minardi and Beckett who got his boat surfing, rather the once-raced Galileo that ended up getting his first taste of media attention.
All of which proves one thing and that is that the winter can turn every kind of pecking order on its head when it comes to young racehorses.
This time round the focus will very definitely be on George Washington, the mercurial Danehill colt who won a pair of Group One prizes, the first by eight lengths, and ended up Europe's champion juvenile.
Since then he has been in possession of the winter Guineas favourite tag and also Kieren Fallon's declaration that George Washington is the most exciting two-year-old he has ever ridden.
It's a pretty impressive CV for possible Classic glory but by definition it's all from 2005. There are some good judges out there who will tell you George Washington is all two-year-old speed, and not much else.
There are others waiting for the gene pool to kick in. George Washington's half-brother Grandera was a truly top-class older horse but could also race like a true blue fruit cake.
And then there are those who look at those 11 to 4 Guineas odds and just say, nah. Of course those doubters could end up looking very foolish, and if they do, George Washington may end up looking the uber-champion to send all those Coolmore calculators into overdrive. Which will make the billing at next week's sneak preview all the more intriguing.
When it comes to other Irish Classic prospects Dermot Weld has already stated he doubts if there is a star lurking in Rosewell House and John Oxx has played down the chances of something following in the champion footsteps of Sinndar (2000), Alamshar (2003) and Azamour (2004/'05.)
Nevertheless, the notoriously cold-eyed Oxx does have a number of Classic entries including Lifetime Romance who won her sole start last year and holds a 1,000 Guineas entry.
Another trainer with a promising Guineas prospect is Tommy Stack who will be hoping the Stakes winner Alexander Alliance can follow in the footsteps of Las Meninas in 1994.
But all we can say for certain as the Flat season cranks into something like top gear is that those flag wavers who delighted at the 10 Cheltenham winners might not need to throw the green into the corner just yet.
Alexander Alliance (T Stack) - Well fancied on her Curragh debut last September, she had to give best to Art Museum. But there was no mistake on her only other start when easily landing a Listed race a month later. Already backed for the 1,000 Guineas, a race her shrewd trainer has won before, there are doubts on breeding about the mile. But even if that is beyond Alexander Alliance, there are good sprint prizes to be won with her.
Art Museum (A P O'Brien) - Largely forgotten in the hype over George Washington, this Storm Cat colt remains a 2,000 Guineas prospect and is as low as 12 to 1 for the Classic on the back of encouraging reports about his progress this spring. There was plenty to like about the way he won both his races at the Curragh last September and he has the scope to improve significantly.
Hurricane Run (A Fabre) - Hardly an original choice but the Arc hero was officially the highest-rated horse in the world last year, and still looks to have it in him to improve. His sire Montjeu was majestic for the first half of his four-year-old career and Hurricane Run looks capable of the same with another Arc triumph on the horizon.
Heliostatic (J S Bolger) - A Galileo colt who was forward enough to debut last June when beaten only a length at the Curragh by Horatio Nelson. One other start yielded a win over seven furlongs at the Curragh and he was immediately put away for a Derby preparation this year. He is set to reappear in a Derby trial in the next four weeks which could well earn him a ticket to Epsom.
Lifetime Romance (J M Oxx) - A grand-daughter of the 1995 champion miler Ridgewood Pearl, the Mozart filly won her sole start in late October on heavy ground at the Curragh. The bare form is nothing to get excited about but the Oxx team are convinced she is much better suited to decent ground and significantly she holds an entry in the 1,000 Guineas. Due to reappear in the Leopardstown Guineas Trial.
