Colin Keane teams up with Kalpana for the first time in Pretty Polly clash with Whirl
Champion jockey Colin Keane rides Kalpana for the first time at the Curragh on Saturday and will hope the €300,000 Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes proves to be the correct Group One weekend option for her.
The Andrew Balding-trained filly was also in the mix for Sunday's mile-and-a-half Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in Paris but instead returns to HQ for another race over 10 furlongs.
Third to Los Angeles in the last month's Tattersalls Gold Cup when ridden by Oisin Murphy, Kalpana is another Juddmonte star for Keane to look forward to in his role as the ownership's number one rider in Europe.
Juddmonte landed the Pretty Polly last with the subsequent Arc heroine Bluestocking and Paris in October also appears to be Kalpana's ultimate target.
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A top-flight winner at a mile and a half on heavy ground last autumn, this distance may be short of her best and she could prove vulnerable to the Oaks runner up Whirl.
The latter is one of just a pair of three-year-olds in a race that has favoured older runners in the last decade. However, she was only narrowly beaten at Epsom, impressed previously in the Musidora, and gets a hefty weight allowance from her elders including France's Survie.
Keane teams up with Ger Lyons for the unbeaten juvenile Lady Iman in the earlier Group Two Airlie Stud Stakes.
The filly has proved a wonderful advertisement for her new sire Starman and landed a Group Three at Naas last time. Before that she beat the subsequent Queen Mary winner True Love at the Curragh.
Beautify was third over course and distance on her debut and Aidan O'Brien's call to pitch her straight into this sort of company is significant. Lady Iman, however, could hardly have been more impressive up to now.
Colin Keane onboard Babouche. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Keane and Lyons are represented by Suzie Songs in the Group Three Anglesey Stakes, a race they won with the top-class filly Babouche a year ago. The Cork winner could be up against a formidable colt in Flushing Meadows. He impressed over course and distance on his debut earlier this month.
The International Stakes is named in honour of the late Kevin Prendergast who won it in 2006 with Mustameet. This time it might provide a perfect, if belated, start to the season for Elizabeth Jane.
Sunday's big race in France is without Kalpana but has a handful of runners crammed with quality.
Last year's Arc runner-up Aventure takes on very accomplished males such as the King George hero Goliath and Calandagan.
The latter's effort will be of particular interest considering his resolution was questioned after a Coronation up defeat to Jan Brueghel. The Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud is off at 4.30pm Irish time.
Joseph O'Brien took Al Riffa out of that big race but will be represented on the card by Scorthy Champ in the Group Two Prix Eugene Adam off at 1.55pm.
He has engaged Christophe Soumillon to ride last year's National Stakes winner who finished out of the money in both the English and Irish Guineas and tries 10 furlongs for the first time.
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