King of Kings will have a run on the gallops tomorrow morning before any decision is taken about next Sunday's Phoenix Stakes. In the meantime, Christy Roche remains on at Cork for the Bank Holiday meeting.

The ground at Cork underwent a dramatic transformation from good through soft to heavy yesterday afternoon, but the alteration should not unduly trouble Roche's banker ride Code Of Honour in the Mallow Vintners Rated Race. He is going for a hat-trick, and looked to have made a lot of improvement since Killarney when he landed a sizeable gamble (9 to 4 to evens) in the Guinness 3-Y-O Handicap on Thursday.

Roche delayed his challenge until the final furlong, then drove him clear to win by five lengths.

Back in fourth place was Loquacious, with whom Roche will be united for the first time in her six-race career in the Hickeys Communication Handicap. She has finished last in the majority of races, but as these have ranged up to two miles one furlong, they can have little bearing on this seven furlong contest. Furthermore this will be the first time that she has tackled ground of this nature. That Roche rides her, rather than the Galway-placed Ashiions, is a pointer hard to pass by.

"Lulu" Oliverfalk, by far the most experienced rider in the P J Carrolls' Ladies Race, has been booked by Jim Bolger for Inishargy, and although her mount has a few pounds to find on John Oxx's Curragh winner, Sirinndi, as compared with a handicap, her strength may decide the issue.

The feature race at Leopardstown is the Joe McGrath Premier Handicap in which Willie Supple rides the English raider Zuhair. If Jim Bolger has got Sunset Reigns back to the form she showed last summer for Aidan O'Brien, she would be hard to beat.

Then, on Derby Day, she gave 20 lb and a comfortable beating to Nakayama Express, who most recently emerged successful in a blanket finish to the United Emirates Airline's Rockingham Handicap.

But pending racecourse evidence on the issue of Sunset Reigns, a safer selection is Poker- B who will again have the services of the champion jockey John Murtagh. The team made all the running in the Cantrell and Crowley Co-operative Race over this same distance at Leopardstown last month to win by a length from Sweet Mazarine, who has been running well in all these big sprint handicaps.

With Roche at Cork, Michael Kinane has picked up the ride in Aidan O'Brien's Hopping Higgins in the Cork Stakes at Leopardstown, a piece of nomenclature sure to confuse. Kinane knows the abilities of the filly only too well as he was in the saddle when just losing the Group Three Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Photogenic can be another twoyear-old winner for Aidan O'Brien and this time Willie Supple has the ride with Kinane on the Weld newcomer Cultural Role.

Gordi is Dermot Weld's only entry in the Fosters' Melbourne Cup, a trophy in which he achieved a memorable 1993 win with Vintage Crop. Already a course winner at Leopardstown, he should be capable of confirming the form with Carnelly in the Challenge Stakes. There was only a length between them last time, and Gordi is 6 lb worse off. But for a horse aiming at two miles, the extra quarter of a mile today must be a plus factor.