IT'S just as well that Dance Design isn't aware of the expectation surrounding her performance in today's Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh.
The return to the track of an Irish Oaks winner is usually occasion enough but today Dance Design is also a barometer to the prospects of an entire stable's recovery.
With over a month of the flat season already gone, the most significant statistic so far has been the sole winner notched up by the usually dominant Dermot Weld yard. Twelve months ago, Rosewell House was plotting the classic campaigns of Dance Design and Zagreb. Now the only plotting revolves around getting the horses healthy enough to avoid running like sickly asthmatics.
With the string affected by the respiratory rhino virus, it's even remarkable that Casey Tibbs provided that win two weeks ago. As its name suggests the offending bug has wallowed deep in the systems of its blue blooded victims and steadfastly refused to budge.
"Frustrating, annoying and very trying," is how Weld described the situation yesterday. In the circumstances he could hardly be accused of overstatement but Dance Design could be the vehicle to turn the corner.
On the official ratings. Dance Design, with at least a stone in hand over the best of her six rivals, should win this at her leisure but even at the best of times, racing is rarely that simple. In Weld's predicament it's even less so but it's significant in itself that he is risking Dance Design at all.
The Group Three Omni Racing Tetrarch Stakes will tell us a lot more about Desert King's aspirations to winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas. Those aspirations survived being beaten in the Gladness Stakes but Desert King can be forgiven that as apart from Nigel Day on the pace forcing Cool Edge, the other riders in the race looked in need of a collective alarm clock.
However Desert King is faced with no easy task today either, giving upwards of 4lb away because of his Group One penalty to the likes of Verglas and James Bethell's July Stakes winner Rich Ground.
But the other British runner Fly To The Stars may be the most dangerous of all.
Christy Roche should have a profitable day. Dangerous Diva, withdrawn from the 1,000 Guineas, gets the nap to beat Chania in the Athasi Stakes while that one's trainer Aidan O'Brien can also take the opener with the Danehill filly Danyross.
Riding arrangements suggest that Khatara is best of the powerful John Oxx team in the concluding maiden but significant improvement is expected from Dreamworks, a disappointment in his only run so far this year at Tipperary.
Oxx and jockey John Murtagh however can win the most interesting contest on Gowran Park's card tomorrow. Akdariya was a promising second to Plaza De Toros on her only run as a juvenile and is highly rated by the Curragh team.
She is the filly of promise in contrast to the exposed Family Tradition, not far off the best of her generation last year. Family Tradition hasn't grown much through the winter however and Akdariya's potential is selected to start bearing fruit.
The course winner Welsh Queen can bounce back to form in the Douglas Fir Handicap and Heroic Destiny should play a major part in the opener judged on a promising fourth to Royal Affinity at the Curragh.
