Friday, 21 March 2014

Aidan O'Brien team set for Curragh spin

Aidan O'Brien: Booked some of his team in for a gallop
The Ballydoyle trainer has made an annual event of giving some of his star names and Classic prospects a day out as preparation for the season ahead.
This year will be no exception with his string exercising after Irish Flat racing has kicked-off the new campaign with a quality card featuring the Group Three Lodge Park Stud EBF Park Express Stakes and the Irish Lincolnshire.
"Aidan has booked in his horses to gallop after racing and that's always a great spectacle here at the first meeting. Aidan has done that for a good number of years," racecourse manager Paul Hensey told At The Races.
"He generally brings a lot of his Classic contenders and all the big-name horses for a day away at the first meeting, which means there are a lot of people coming to see those horses.
"It's something we are really looking forward to, seeing maybe Australia and some of the other high-profile horses.
"I'm not sure exactly what is going to come but once we do know, we will let everybody know who is going to gallop.
"They don't do anything too serious on the track. They generally do a good half-speed or a good swinging canter on the track, but I think the objective is to get the horses away for a day and get them focused on racing again at the start of the season.
"We've been very lucky and seen all the good horses over the years from Camelot to So You Think."
Hensey reports the course to be in good shape after a winter that was not as challenging as in the past.
"We've not had that tough a winter. We had quite a dry spell through to Christmas and on Sunday we will be racing on ground which has not been raced on since September," he said.
"We didn't get a lot of cold weather or really a lot of very wet weather through the winter.
"It was a good winter on the track and we've got a good cover of grass. Fingers crossed, we could start on a lot worse."

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