Bright bids to earn his Stripes in Guineas Trial Andy Oliver hopes to have a Classic contender on his hands with Bright Stripes who has the 2,000 Guineas Trial in Leopardstown as his target. The Starspangledbanner colt won his maiden at Naas in September and ran a cracker when pipped on the line by a nose in the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes at Leopardstown the following month. He is now on a mark of 103 and Oliver is eager to see which path to go down after the Guineas trial. The trainer said: "He will probably go to the Guineas Trial at Leopardstown. "He is engaged in the Irish (2,000) Guineas, he was put in at the second stage I think. "It is a stepping stone and we will see what the Guineas trial brings and we will make our decisions after that to see where we go. "He's a horse we really liked last year. He's a horse that relaxes in his races and loves what he does. When he gets to the front, he only does enough. "He was progressing during the year, but the last race in that ground we had to run and he was unlucky, but we were beating conditions that day rather than anything else. He was ahead everywhere barring the line. "We can't rue anything, it was still a good performance on the day." Bright Stripes also has the option of the €200,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Gowran Classic in early June.
