Start of the Flat season: Johnny Murtagh had the perfect start to the 2007 Flat season in Ireland with an 879 to 1 treble at the Curragh yesterday that included an eight-length annihilation by Deauville Vision of what had looked a competitive Ladbrokes Irish Lincolnshire field.

After a winter spent riding in Dubai, the former champion jockey's readiness for a new campaign was obvious just half an hour earlier when Ardbrae Lady picked up the Group Three Lodge Park Stud EBF Park Express Stakes and a clash between her and Deauville Vision in next month's Athasi Stakes could yet be on the cards. That would be familiar ground for Ardbrae Lady who was runner-up in last year's Irish 1,000 Guineas but it would represent a significant step up for Deauville Vision. On yesterday's evidence, however, it is a step the Michael Halford-trained filly looks well up to.

Bawaader might have been heavily backed to repeat his eight-length Lincolnshire triumph of the previous year but instead it was Murtagh's mount that equalled that historic winning margin after an ultra-stylish performance that had Murtagh, putting up just 1lb overweight, sitting up well before the line.

"She was doing everything right at home, and Johnny was trying to do 8st 9lb, but I didn't think she would win that well," admitted Halford whose large team of horses are now divided between the Curragh and a new yard near Kildangan Stud.

"You'd want to be mad to be cocky going into a Lincoln but she was giving us all the right vibes," he added.

"I was tempted by the Group race today but with the mark she has, we had to go for the handicap. We can step her up in Grade now, maybe for the Athasi."

Ardbrae Lady's chances of making the Athasi could depend on Coolmore Stud's schedule as the filly is due to be covered by the stallion Galileo this spring.

Winless since her only previous success as a two-year-old, some of Ardbrae Lady's form in her 19-race career prior to yesterday was, nevertheless, enough to make her one-length defeat of Danehill Music yesterday anything but a surprise. "

She's got it right at last. It's great she has managed to get a Group Three under her belt," beamed Murphy who also has the Gladness as a short-term aim and the Windsor Forest Stakes at Royal Ascot as a longer-term target. "The Athasi is a probable for her too, although the marriage might interfere with the plan!"

Murtagh completed his treble on board Little White Lie who beat his stable companion, Out Of The Red, to complete a Ger Lyons one-two in the Madrid Handicap. There was no more relieved man at the Curragh than Lyons who failed to saddle a winner at headquarters throughout 2006 but wasted no time this term rubbishing any talk of a hoodoo.

"You just keep throwing enough darts and hope one of them sticks," explained Lyons whose horse, Irish Jig, ran third to the winner Sammy The Snake in the first race of the season, the Tally-Ho Maiden.

Sammy The Snake, trained by the Irishman Brendan Duke in Lambourn, unshipped his rider, David Moran, on the way to the start but kept enough in reserve to beat Scupio by half a length and justify Duke's decision to travel home.

"There were several people in England offering to buy me tablets when they found out I was trying to win a maiden here but this was a fact-finding mission to see if we should keep the horse in the Goffs Million later in the year," Duke said.

"I can't say how much it means to have a winner here," added Duke who trains the winner for his brother, Joseph. "He gave me €10,000 to buy a horse at Goffs and when I see this fellah, I had to ring him for another twenty thousand. I told him it was about time he bought himself a Ferrari!"

Aidan O'Brien ran three horses yesterday on the weekend he announced that last year's classic hero, George Washington, is back in training after an abortive stud career that ended when he was found to be infertile.

The Ballydoyle hope Abraham Lincoln managed best of them when fourth in the six-furlong maiden which went to the 20 to 1 newcomer Once Upon A Grace who beat another debutant, Regalline, under apprentice Martin Lane.

Leopardstown's 1,000 Guineas Trial will be next for Once Upon A Grace and the 2,000 version on the same day is on the cards for Alarazi who made his own winning debut in the mile maiden.

"He got a fright with the stalls last year but he has a lovely temperament and he'll be grand," said his trainer John Oxx.

"We will give him his chance in the Guineas Trial or the Loughbrown back here the following week."