Roscommon has its first meeting of 2020 this afternoon© Photo Healy Racing
Irish racing heads into its second week of action since the resumption of the season with a further nine Flat fixtures scheduled before the jumpers return to the fold at Limerick next Monday.
After a week of stand-alone fixtures, this week sees three double-headers, beginning with Fairyhouse (1.00 pm start) and Roscommon (first off at 4.15 pm) this afternoon.
Aidan O’Brien (14 winners in the first week back) will be well represented at Royal Ascot which begins tomorrow and has 11 runners due to take part on the first two days of that flagship meeting. In the meantime, he has three runners at Fairyhouse today, two of which, Giorgio Vasari (1.00) and Love Bracelet (1.30) are partnered by Seamie Heffernan who’s ridden 10 winners in the past week.
Shane Foley has matched that figure, and he heads west for five rides at Roscommon including Irish Oaks-entered debutante Flor de La Luna (5.15) for his main patron Jessica Harrington. The latter has registered 9 winners in the past week, and has five horses due to run at Fairyhouse as well, including the useful and well-fancied Papa Bear in the third race at 2.00.
Ger Lyons (6 winners since last Monday) and Colin Keane (8 in the same period) enjoyed Classic success for the first time with Siskin in the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas on Friday and followed up with a Listed race double at Leopardstown yesterday.
Keane has a full book of 8 rides at Fairyhouse this afternoon including the Equiano 2-y-o debutante Lilandra for his boss in the 1.30, while Lyons in total has four runners today, evenly divided between both cards.
