The Flat is back! Five of interest at the Curragh on Sunday

Speaking personally as a horse racing follower of around two decades, the coming and going of the seasons - and welcoming in a new start – is something you increasingly enjoy and appreciate as time passes by, even if a bumper eight-race card at the Curragh less than 48 hours after they passed the post in the Cheltenham Gold Cup requires some element of adjustment! 

A maximum number of 27 line up in the feature €100,000 Nua Healthcare Irish Lincolnshire - just one of six big double-figure fields on the day – with 135 horses set to run on the card and 19 per cent of those debutants. 

Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore team up with three chances while Paddy Twomey, Dermot Weld, Jim Bolger, Joseph O’Brien, Jessica Harrington and Johnny Murtagh are just some of the notable names in the training ranks to be represented. 

Ahead of the action, here are five names to note – including three in the big race. 

Jim Bolger has never trained a Mehmas to run on the track, so this filly is already somewhat unique and she has an interesting profile for this 5f event and opening race of the season proper. 

Bolger has not had a debut two-year-old winner since September 2022 – a losing sequence of 45 – but we all know the top trainer’s ability to ready one and his record in March maidens with such types is strong in the last 15 years (29 per cent win, 63 per cent win and place, +£22.25, 1.38 A/E).

Missing Matron won this race easily at 16/1 back in 2021, while other 5f winners he’s had on previous season openers include top-class pair Dawn Approach (2012) and Poetic Flare (2020).

First-season sires represented in this include Space Blues (€16,000), Lucky Vega (€12,500), Ubettabelieveit (£5,000) and Supremacy (€8,000) in a race to keep an eye on.

Looking down at the pedigrees of the unraced types - especially earlier in the campaign - is one of the pleasures of Flat racing and Aidan O’Brien’s Win Me Over fits the bill as perhaps the most interestingly-bred newcomer on the card. 

By Kingman out of Beach Frolic, this filly is a full sister to top-class miler Palace Pier and it will be fascinating to see how she fares at a time when you wouldn’t expect Ballydoyle to be firing on all cylinders. 

Maidens have proven a bit more profitable for the operation early-doors though (23 per cent and 0.89 A/E in March, compared to 17 per cent and 0.82 A/E in all other race types) and the record of fillies is pretty decent, recording a small level stakes profit to a 29 per cent strike-rate.

Eleven of her 19 rivals have prior experience but, overall, it’s not a daunting standard and if Win Me Over is above average she should be in the shake-up.

The Frankel nine-year-old is one of the oldest runners on the card and, while he’s not the unexposed type likely to hit several trackers after this seasonal reappearance, he has shown he has a particular liking for the big-field set-up of the Irish Lincolnshire and he could well hit the places again at the prices - 40/1 at the time of publication.

Casanova has not finished out of the places in three previous runs in the race and, despite his advancing years, he’s weighted to run well again. He now races from a mark of 82 – by contrast, he was rated 99, 97 and 85 respectively on his three previous goes. 

Encouragingly from an each-way perspective, he’s finished strongly on his first two tries in this but faded last year after travelling about best to the furlong marker. He’s generally ground versatile but conditions may have just been a bit more testing than ideal there.

Trainer Ado McGuinness has a 32 per cent place strike-rate in the race and horses of his such as Victram (2008) and Saltonstall (2023) have placed in this after running in it before. The trainer’s last two nine-year-olds to run in this – Saltonstall and Master Speaker (2019) – finished second and third respectively.

Young apprentice Joseph Pietropaolo eases the burden by 7lb too – Ronan Whelan rode Casanova last year – and while the young rider is three from 50 overall his place strike-rate is perfectly fair and he’s had seven rides for Joseph O’Brien, who he’s based with. 

A Dream To Share is the classiest ‘jumps’ horse to run on the card – a Champion Bumper winner no less who followed up at Punchestown a few seasons ago – but while he’ll probably be pleased he has nothing to jump in the one-mile maiden you feel that race could prove something of a culture shock all the same. 

Like that one, has also had his jumping issues and could well find this test on the sharp side too. However, he has a big field and strong pace to help him and his jumps form reads quite well despite the travails with his hurdling technique, including his latest run behind Bacchanalian who has since trotted up by 11L at Grade Three level.

Nicola Burns takes the eye with her 7lb claim – the daughter of trainer Robbie Burns, she only got her licence last September but she’s already racked up over 90 rides in that time for lots of different yards and has been busy at Dundalk since the start of November (9 winners and 19 more placed from 77 mounts).

One more from the big race.

Gleneagle Bay stands out as potentially the genuinely unexposed one in this line-up, having had just five starts so far and with champion Colin Keane up for trainer Stephen Thorne. 

The five-year-old hasn’t been missed in the market on the early evidence but that’s not a surprise, having run a cracker to finish second on handicap debut at the Irish Champions Festival last autumn before following that up with a fine second over the course and distance of this race behind Rhythm King on his final start of last season. 

He still looked green at times last season and it’s interesting that he sports first-time cheekpieces as well as a tongue tie here, while his rating of 93 looks reasonable on pedigree alone (half-brothers Nahaarr and Rebel’s Gamble stakes performers).

This has the feel of a long-term aim and Thorne has made a fantastic impression in the training ranks so far. Having hit the crossbar several times before sending out his first winner on November 13 last year, the former assistant to Ado McGuinness and Ralph Beckett has had a great time of it at Dundalk over the winter, with 12 wins from 61 runners (48 per cent place strike-rate) before play on Friday and the stable having another winner on that evening card.

Runners with no more than five prior runs in this race since 2010 have a fair 10 per cent strike-rate overall with a little more than a quarter placed. Although you’d probably prefer a more central draw, that’s not enough to think he shouldn’t go pretty well.