Fillies On Trial At Leopardstown

Robbed of any high-profile names due partly to a clash with the Newmarket Classic, Sunday's G3 Derrinstown Stud 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown is nevertheless a wide-open affair which offers the chance for latecomers to enter the picture for the Irish Classic in three weeks' time. Aidan O'Brien holds the record with seven winners and saddles the Apr. 21 Dundalk conditions runner-up Asking (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) and G3 Athasi S. fourth Elizabeth Browning (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), while Jim Bolger relies on Bean Feasa (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). A daughter of the 2001 winner of this race, the half-sister to Teofilo {Ire}) Speirbhean (Ire) (Danehill), she was second in a Gowran Park maiden on Sunday but Godolphin's Jimmy Hyland is expecting her to bounce back. “Bean Feasa was runner-up at Gowran Park on soft ground, which wouldn't have suited her, so it was a very creditable run in the circumstances,” he said. “She should go close on faster ground this time.” Willie McCreery has a high opinion of the impressive Galway maiden scorer Perle de la Mer (Ire) (Born To Sea {Ire}), who was subsequently disappointing when fifth in the G3 C.L. & M.F. Weld Park S. at The Curragh. “Whether she'll go on the quicker ground would be the question, but she's in good form and she's ready to go,” he said. “She was very good in Galway on her first run and her second race was a little unfortunate as they divided into groups, she ended up racing on her own and was a bit green.”