Cork Racecourse is primed for three days of racing and 24 races in total this Easter weekend with Saturday’s all flat card being followed by two exciting National Hunt fixtures on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.
The Irish Stallion Farms EBF Cork Stakes has attracted a field of 11 runners which is headed by the Jessica Harrington-trained Ocean Quest who will attempt to add this Cork listed race to her listed and Group 3 successes last season.
The Fozzy Stack-trained You Send Me was sixth in the Irish 1000 Guineas last season and is another interesting runner in the six furlong contest, which will also see Fast Response make her stable debut for trainer Joseph O’Brien.
Another fascinating entry on Saturday’s card is the Paddy Twomey-trained One Look who had just one very lucrative racecourse appearance so far when the daughter of Gleneagles won last September’s Goffs Million at the Curragh. One Look will reappear in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Median Auction Race and she is already a leading contender of the English 1000 Guineas in May.
The €45,000 Bar One Racing Easter Handicap Hurdle is one of the feature races on Sunday’s card in Cork.
Chosen Witness, who won last time out at Thurles, is a leading contender for trainer Willie Mullins and jockey Sean O’Keeffe.
Owner JP McManus is represented by a pair of runners with the veteran Shadow Rider looking to follow up a massive 21-length win on his most recent outing at Fairyhouse for Padraig Roche while Hands Of Gold will be saddled by Arthur Moore.
Bandon-based trainer Padraig Butler will be hoping for a bold showing from his stable star Da Capo Glory who ran a fine race at the Cheltenham Festival, while the weights are topped by the Jessica Harrington-trained Ashdale Bob.
The competitive nine-runner field also includes the talented Any Road who competed in Grade 3 company last time out, while Henry de Bromhead’s Lucky Zebo will have his first start since Christmas.
A tactical affair will be in store for the Grade 3 Bar One Racing Steeplechase which will be a match race between two highly talented chasers. The Willie Mullins-trained Asterion Forlonge returns to fences after finishing sixth behind Teahupoo in the Stayers Hurdle at Cheltenham earlier this month. Without a win since last Easter when he won a Grade 2 Hurdle at Fairyhouse, the 10-year-old has competed at Grade 1 level for each of his last five outings and now faces the challenge of John Ryan’s Lucid Dreams. A year younger and much more lightly raced, Lucid Dreams only made his racecourse debut a little over 12 months ago but has managed six wins and eight placed efforts in that time from 19 starts.
Lucid Dreams has picked up prize money in Grade 2 and Grade 3 company on his last three starts and will be bidding to deny Willie Mullins a hat-trick of consecutive wins in this race following on from Melon and Bachasson in 2022 and 2023. Trainer John Ryan is himself looking for a second victory in the Grade 3 Bar One Racing Steeplechase having scored with Waitnsee in 2021.
Also on Sunday’s card the 2021 and 2022 Cheltenham Festival winner Sir Gerhard will contest the Bar One Racing Hurdle where he’ll face six rivals including Call Me Lyreen, while on Monday racing continues at cork with some quality action in store with an eight-race card likely to showcase the talent of some promising young National Hunt horses coming through the ranks.
The first of an eight race card on Saturday is due off at 1.15pm, while Sunday’s eight race card begins at 1.10pm and Monday’s first race is at 1.48pm.
