Va Pensiero© Photo Healy Racing
Dermot Weld pitches his well-bred Dundalk winner Va Pensiero into the Godolphin Student Initiative Handicap at Leopardstown on Wednesday.
The three-year-old daughter of High Chaparral has been given a rating of 81 after staying on well to make a successful introduction over a mile on the Polytrack in February.
There is every hope she will handle the forecast testing conditions in Foxrock being out of Pivotal mare Thoughtless Moment, who won two races at this track, including the valuable September Handicap.
Weld also has good prospects with Look Closer in the Racecourse Of The Year Maiden. His only previous outing came at this track when third to Tonkinese last June.
However, The Gurkha makes his debut for Aidan O'Brien and holds entries in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, Investec Derby and Irish Derby. Somehow appears the pick of the O'Brien trio on jockey bookings in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Fillies Maiden. She made a perfectly respectable debut here in October when third to well-backed stablemate Pretty Perfect.
Weld's Shamreen is match-fit from being placed at the Curragh last month and looks the danger. Love In The Sun won on heavy ground in Cork for Weld and Pat Smullen and has to go on the shortlist when stepped up in trip for the mile-and-a-quarter Spin 1038 Handicap. Athenry Boy could outrun his odds in the Bulmers Live At Leopardstown Handicap. He was second to Prospector in a big-field handicap at this venue in October and gets in off 4lb lower. Beechmount Whisper has made the frame in eight of his 11 races but opportunity might knock in the "Colours Bar" Handicap on the back of a solid runner-up finish in Cork.
