Toe The Line and Altesse renew rivalry in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Noblesse Stakes at Cork.
The former was a revelation last season, graduating through the handicap ranks in a campaign that culminated with a neck defeat of Altesse in the Listed Loughbrown Stakes at the Curragh.
She is actually 8lb better off now and attempts to concede 4lb to Dermot Weld's lightly raced Massinga, who will relish testing conditions.
Former smart juvenile Ballybacka Queen tries to rediscover some zest in this Listed affair, while Queen Of Alba has fitness on her side after making the frame in the Irish Lincolnshire last weekend.
Joseph O'Brien is back in Flat action on East India in the www.corkracecourse.ie Rated Race.
The son of Galileo made a successful start to his career, only to blot his copybook with an expensive defeat at Tipperary before finishing down the field in the Leopardstown Group Three won by Derby favourite John F Kennedy.
O'Brien is also jocked up on Hans Holbein in the Blackwater Maiden.
This Montjeu colt made a start full of encouragement at Gowran Park and holds a clutch of big-race entries.
As he so often does, Weld has begun the season on the front foot and starts Irish 1,000 Guineas entry Shahzeena off in the opening Like Us On Facebook Median Auction Fillies Maiden at 2.10pm.
The master of Rosewell backs Defining Year up quickly after his creditable performance in the Irish Lincolnshire, but he tackles an interesting opponent in the Cork Handicap, with the Jim Bolger-trained News At Six on a four-timer and still open to improvement.
Bolger has another unexposed representative in High Focus, who reappears in the Newmarket Handicap, and her stable companion Sun Focus has a hood applied for his first foray outside maiden company in the Follow Us On Twitter Handicap.
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