It’s been a testing few weeks on the track, with the unfortunate injury to reigning champ Skywalker Puma and the prospect of ante-post favourite Ballymac Vic exiting the ETS Irish Derby without lining up for Saturday night’s first quarter-final at Shelbourne.

The history of the Irish Derby is laden with fairytales and invariably one or two such stories emerge each year as we approach the final.

SLADE POWER is the nap choice to defy an absence of 194 days in the Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Maiden at Dundalk tonight.

After an absence of nearly 25 years in the UK, the tote will return to the betting ring when it will have a pitch on the rails on the opening day of Royal Ascot.

Dancing Bay can make amends for his costly blunder last time by breaking his duck over hurdles at Warwick tomorrow.