Ehsan and Scorpion set for battle royal
But the contest I am most looking forward to is the relatively modest Group Three Gallinule Stakes on Sunday.
This promises a smashing head-to-head between John Oxx’s Ehsan and Aidan O'Brien's Scorpion, both horses having been hugely impressive on their only outings to date.
Ehsan, a son of Sinndar, has taken high order in the ante-post market for the Epsom Derby, which I think surprises even his astute handler.
It is well documented that he shows little at home and was a drifter in the market, 5-2 to 4-1, when starting off at headquarters last month.
Ehsan won in fine style, by seven lengths, but it is hardly encouraging that his three immediate victims, Helvetio, Winged Arrow and Down Mexico Way, have all got beaten in the meantime.
It isn't often a horse literally takes your breath away first time out, but that was the case with Scorpion at Leopardstown earlier this month.
Unlike Ehsan, he had clearly shown loads on the gallops and was backed from 7-4 to 4-5.
For much of that ten furlongs Scorpion didn't appear to have a clue what to do, but was given all the time in the world by Kieren Fallon to get organised.
He powered through in the closing stages to win without turning a hair, by a cosy half a length from another promising first-timer, David Wachman's Magnolia Lane.
A further ten lengths away in third was Kevin Prendergast's Menwaal and that horse scored at Roscommon on Monday evening.
Winged Arrow, seven and a half lengths behind Ehsan at the Curragh, was also in Scorpion's race. He finished eighth, beaten almost 25 lengths.
Could Scorpion yet claim a place in the Ballydoyle team for the Epsom Derby? Or will Ehsan prove too strong, and if he does then some of us will have to take him far more seriously.
WHAT a difference Kieren Fallon is making to Ballydoyle. He is rarely if ever in the wrong place through a race and the possibility of being suspended for the whip or just downright foolish riding doesn't seem to be on his particular radar at all.
It proves, as if proof was needed, that you need a bit of age and buckets of experience on your side for this highest of profile jobs.
The likes of Piggott, Eddery, Roche, Kinane, and even Reid and Asmussen, had a huge amount done, a massive CV behind them, before they landed at Ballydoyle.
The more you think about it the more you realise how unfair it was to put Jamie Spencer into the job in the first place.
Watching him ride in England these days he's like a man reborn, as if reprieved from death row. Who knows, he might even end up champion jockey and wouldn't that prove again that the truth is indeed often stranger than fiction.
For Fallon, however, things could hardly have started any better and there is every chance this could well be the proverbial marriage made in Heaven!
Certainly, when the press were at Ballydoyle a couple of weeks back for the open day, the body language between himself and O'Brien was impressive.
And the fact that the handful of juveniles Ballydoyle has run so far this season have looked more than a trifle smart can only be a help.
THE number of horses in training in this country is savage.
Take Tipperary this evening. The Ballykisteen Maiden Hurdle attracted an unbelievable entry of 175 and the handicap hurdle an extraordinary 171.
The bumper at Cork tomorrow night has 132 possibilities, while a handicap hurdle at Downpatrick, also tomorrow night, sees a whopping 103 moderate beasties chancing their luck.
So it is a case of wholesale balloting and plenty disappointed connections. But short of building a few more racecourses or shooting half the bad horses, neither scenario is remotely likely, there seems no solution whatsoever.
