Irish Racing/Weekend preview: Mark Johnston's splendid and still unbeaten filly Attraction included the Boylesports Irish 1,000 Guineas in her haul before going on to Royal Ascot where she dominated the Coronation Stakes to win by two and a half lengths from Majestic Desert.
Now it is up to Mick Channon's astute €15,000 yearling purchase to pay due tribute to Atttraction by bringing to an end the winning sequence of Tropical Lady in the Group Three Irish Stallions Farms EBF Brownstown Stakes at Leopardstown today.
Majestic Desert is already a winner in this country for she came to the Curragh last August and captured the valuable Tattersalls Breeders Stakes, beating her compatriot Totally Yours by a head as a prelude to a narrow defeat by Carry On Katie in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket.
The subject of Attraction and her dodgy legs have been widely advertised, but far less attention has been paid to her antecedents as quiet remarkably she traces back in the direct female line to another great mare Verdict who managed a double General Stud Book ban by having a sire and dam neither of whom qualified for inclusion.
Verdict was got by Shogun, a descendent of the never registered Irish May-Boy family but this lack of Messrs Weatherby's seal of approval did not prevent Verdict from winning the greatest of all English Cambridgeshires, beating the French three-year-old crack Epinard who himself had been set to give weight to Pharos, runner-up in that year's Epsom Derby no less, and who now had to settle for fourth place.
When he went to stud Pharos turned the tables on all his generation by siring Nearco whose Northern Dancer line through Sadler's Wells came up French trumps for Michael Tabor in the year 1999 with Montjeu winning the Irish and French Derbys and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Only a handful of Monjeu's first crop have so far been seen out but the numbers will multiply as we get deeper into the second half of the Flat season.
Stagecraft, who was a particularly good looking yearling according to those who were at Tattersalls Newmarket Sales, can make a winning debut in the opener at Leopardstown (5.45).
The same parnership, of joint owners trainer and jockey can secure the last race with Napoleon (8.45).
The second leg of the double Saturday evening fixtures takes place at Limerick and sensibly this is an all-National Hunt meeting to counterpoint Leopardstown's all Flat card.
Pat Flynn has made a slow beginning to the 2004/2005 season but a change of fortune is due through the medium of Smoking Barrels (7.30) who can retrieve Tralee losses.
The major attraction at Limerick, though, will be human rather than equine with six British-based riders taking on six of the top Irish jockeys in a Betfair four hurdle race challenge.
The Jim Bolger-trained Danelissima (Tom Queally) bids for Group Two glory in today's Lancashire Oaks at Haydock.
