Dermot Weld© Photo Healy Racing
Dermot Weld has made a blistering start to the 2014 season, and the master of Rosewell House could add to his impressive tally of 17 winners in the past month at Dundalk on Friday where Tahaany and Wateed have solid claims.
Tahaany faces just two rivals in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Race, and the daughter of Breeders' Cup Classic hero Raven's Pass could have a vital edge in fitness over her two rivals having already been in action this term.
She added to a Leopardstown maiden win last summer by scoring again on her reappearance in another three-runner affair at Cork earlier this month. The testing ground on that occasion may not have seen her to best effect.
However, it may not be plain sailing in this one-mile event as Mick Halford's Adelana had a similar profile as a juvenile last year also winning on her third start at Killarney.
That victory has a link to the upcoming Qipco 1000 Guineas as the Aga Khan's filly beat Chicago Girl, who in turn again filled the runner-up spot behind My Titania in the Group Three CL Weld Park Stakes at the Curragh.
Like Tahaany, Wateed also sports the familiar blue silks with white epaulets of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and he would certainly not be winning the Easter Mid-Term Madness At Dundalk Stadium Median Auction Maiden out of turn.
The Iffraaj gelding has been in the money on all six starts to date, and was runner-up for the third time on his reappearance over course and distance last month.
He was squeezed a bit for room on the far rail inside the final furlong behind I'vegotafeeling, and should confirm placings with a number of rivals who line-up here again.
Johnny Feane has made a successful transition to the training ranks this year, and Dundalk has proved a great hunting ground for the rookie Curragh handler with the likes of Strategic Heights completing a hat-trick on the Polytrack earlier this year. Six Silver Lane has already played his part in the Feane success story by winning on his first start for the stable over a mile here earlier this month.
The Aussie Rules gelding, a four-time winner in the past for Joanna Morgan, at one point boasted a career-high rating of 80.
His form tailed off and his rating consequently plummeted after a spell in England last year but Feane found the key off a lowly mark of 50 this month.
He could defy a subsequent rise of 7lb in the Dundalk Stadium Racecourse Of The Year Apprentice Handicap.
