Johnny Murtagh selects his best chance and potential 'stakes horse' at this weekend's Irish Champions Festival Leopardstown and the Curragh host 7 Group 1 races this weekend along with several other lucrative contests at the Irish Champions Festival. Johnny Murtagh is a trainer who enjoyed great success last year with three winners at the meeting and his team have recently hit form. Speaking to Tonybet ahead of their sponsorship of the Solonoway Stakes at Irish Champions Festival, Johnny Murtagh said: Last year I was very positive, I was very confident going into the Irish Champions Festival. We had Alakazi, he was the main one, we also had loads of horses in all those handicaps which we fancied. It’s a bit like that again. We fancy a lot of horses, horses like Rahmi we’re positive about. I’m always positive, I’m always fancying them, but what you could say is we don’t have that one outstanding horse like we did last year. We have a nice solid bunch so I’m hopeful rather than confident. Best chance at the Festival I’d say Sindagan is my best chance. He is a three-year-old who hasn’t had many runs. He started this season finishing second behind a pretty good horse of Michael O’Callaghan’s, Bamako Beach, who won well last week. Our lad’s got a rating of 94 and we think he could be a stakes horse in the making. He’s going to have to be to win a handicap off that mark. He’s in good shape, we brought him up to the Curragh last week, he’s fit, well and ready to go. Moyglare Stud's progressive three-year-old filly Blue Blue Moon needs rains We should all be keeping an eye on Blue Blue Moon. She’ll appreciate the cut in the ground, so we’ll be doing a bit of a rain dance over the next couple of days, as quite a few of ours want it to be on the slower side. Don’t forget Floresta who runs at Doncaster on Saturday After Floresta ran a good fifth in the Group 2 Park Hill at Doncaster last year, I thought she was a filly that could go on to win a Group race. She’s since won a Group 3 race in Fairyhouse and now we’re just going to try and win a Group 2. I thought she was a filly that could go on to win a Group race. She’s entered in a Group 1 later in the year in France. She’s a good stayer, she’s a huge, big filly with a big stride. We’re happy to be going back to Doncaster with her and hopefully she’ll be closer this time.
