The group Three Derrinstown Derby Trial is one of the few pattern events to have eluded John Oxx during his 20-year training career but the filly Rafayda can put that right tomorrow at Leopardstown.
In contrast, Dermot Weld is trying for a sixth success in the race with two of the five runners, Port Bayou and River Canyon. Aidan O'Brien won this with Risk Material last year and sides with the unbeaten Tchaikovsky who is currently as low as 25 to 1 for the Derby while Wild Heaven's trainer Charles O'Brien has won this £55,000 pot twice before.
It's an intriguing little contest but one where it is possible to make a reasonable case for the only filly in the race.
Rafayda has four lengths to make up on Port Bayou on previous course and distance form last month when they chased home Cupid. She is 2lb better off for that but still has to shoulder a penalty for winning a Group race last year.
Nevertheless, Rafayda was in season on the run up to her seasonal debut and Oxx's horses have taken time to start hitting the winning mark. They are hitting it now, however, and normal improvement for a first run should see her be competitive with Port Bayou.
With the ground drying out, Weld is agonising about running River Canyon who he admits needs a good dig in the ground. River Canyon is unlikely to get that and although Tchaikovsky has done nothing wrong to date, he hasn't had a lot on his plate.
The Sadlers Wells colt gets that tomorrow and Rafayda could prove too tough for him, giving Oxx a Derrinstown winner to match his father who won this in 1977 with Orchestra.
It's highly unlikely that Weld will leave the track empty handed, however. The Green Desert colt Royal Command won his maiden well enough at the Curragh but on the face of it has a big step up in class for the Doyle Amethyst Stakes. It was impossible to disregard the high regard Weld expressed about the horse after that, however, and that will be put to the test now.
The smart two-year-old Access All Areas reappears in this, as does Burden Of Proof and intriguingly, a former ante-post Derby favourite Nash House, who is now with Mark Roper having disappointed for Peter Chapple-Hyam.
Weld's Francis Bay has been a busy horse in recent weeks and didn't do too badly over hurdles at Punchestown when fifth to the highly rated English jumper Blue Royal. Francis Bay reverts to the level for the 12 furlong handicap and he looks to hold a clear chance with Have Merci and Keeping The Faith suggested as his main dangers.
The ground could prove the key to the concluding maiden where Weld runs Halcyon. A debut sixth to Blast Of Storm at Cork last month was hardly an earth shattering debut but it was on heavy ground and as a son of Dieses, this colt is sure to show more on a sounder surface.
The other black type event, the 1,000 Guineas Trial, sees Dazzling Park, rated 103, making her reappearance but Carambola, not beaten far by Show Me The Money last time out and a filly who may appreciate a lead, looks a better value option while Aidan O'Brien's Sri-Pekan newcomer Gazelle will do well to cope with Desert Sky in the opener. Down south at the start of Killarney's three-day May festival, the feature is the £25,000 Murphys Handicap Hurdle which has just nine runners but is a fair teaser for punters.
The top weight Quinze was beaten early in the straight in last Saturday's Swinton Hurdle at Haydock but is a course winner here and should do better against the likes of novice Dance So Suite and the Imperial Cup winner Regency Rake.
The only four-year-old in the race, Miss Emer, looks a better option though. Temperamental but talented, Noel Meade's filly ran a blinder to be fourth to Katarino in the juvenile championship event at Punchestown, will act on the forecast fastish going and gets a sizeable chunk of weight from the principals.
Meade's current scintillating form is also an encouragement and that can be emphasised half an hour earlier when the classy Hill Society finally gets the ground he has been crying out for all season in the Freefoam Chase. This trip may be a quarter mile more than ideal but it will be disappointing if Richard Dunwoody's mount cannot score in these conditions.
