THERE WILL be Irish interest in top-flight racing action around the world this weekend with Aidan O'Brien's Mount Nelson kicking off the Group One dates in this afternoon's Coral Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.
Mount Nelson will attempt to continue the champion trainer's recent hot streak which took in four Group One winners at Royal Ascot followed by Frozen Fire's dramatic Irish Derby victory last weekend.
O'Brien has won the Eclipse three times before - Giant's Causeway (2000), Hawk Wing (2002) and Oratorio (2005) - and Mount Nelson is disputing ante-post favouritism in an attempt to bring up the four-timer.
Mount Nelson hasn't won since securing Group One honours in the 2006 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud but put in an encouraging effort at Royal Ascot last month and is versatile in terms of ground conditions. "It has been very fast ground for his last two starts but he won on soft as a two-year-old," O'Brien said.
Mount Nelson's opposition includes the Henry Cecil-trained pair Phoenix Tower and Multidimensional while Godolphin are also doubly represented with Campanologist and Literato.
After riding Mount Nelson, John Murtagh's attention will switch to Hamburg tomorrow where King Of Rome is one of 17 starters in the €535,000 German Derby over a mile and a half.
O'Brien has never won a top-flight race in Germany but he did saddle Anton Chekhov to finish third in last year's Deutsches Derby.
King Of Rome was Murtagh's selection in the Epsom Derby but could manage only 12th before a more encouraging effort in the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot where he finished third over a mile and a quarter.
"He's quite a classy horse so we're hoping it won't be a problem going back to a mile and a half," O'Brien said.
Dermot Weld and Pat Smullen are in Los Angeles where Carribean Sunset will attempt to give her connections a first Group/Grade One success of 2008 in tonight's €477,000 American Oaks at Hollywood Park.
Carribean Sunset finished third in the Irish 1,000 Guineas in May and the Weld-trained Dimitrova filled the same place in the same race before scoring in the 2003 American Oaks.
Tonight's 10-furlong feature is the first time Carribean Sunset will race beyond a mile and she faces 11 opponents including the locally trained Pure Clan who brings her own classic credentials to the party having finished third in the Kentucky Oaks on dirt.
There are three other European runners in the race including John Egan's mount Annie Skates.
There will also be Irish interest in today's Group Two Lancashire Oaks at Haydock where Mick Kinane teams up with Jim Bolger for Ezima and David Wachman runs his progressive Limerick Listed winner Dress Rehearsal.
