McCreery has plenty to look forward to this term Up Helly Aa is the undoubted flagbearer for Willie McCreery this season but the Curragh trainer has plenty to look forward to among a team of 55 Flat horses once racing eventually returns. Downforce has been a standing dish at Rathbride Stables over the past five seasons and the eight-year-old remains in training although the proven mudlark is unlikely to be seen in action until later in the year. “Downforce was ready to run but he’ll have to wait now and probably won’t run now until the autumn wither. He loves really soft ground,” said McCreery of the two-time Listed race winner. Ickworth also won at Listed level when showing an abundance of speed to land the First Flier Stakes at the Curragh last May and is another that will be competing in pattern race sprints. “She will run in anything around four furlongs!” he quipped. “There is a race for three-year-old fillies in Cork and also a race in Bath. “She reared up as the stalls opened at Ascot (in the Queen Mary Stakes) and took no part. It was actually lucky as the ground was gone soft and she wouldn’t have run her race anyway. “She has loads of pace and found it hard to negotiate the bend in Dundalk one day. There is plenty of five-furlong races for her and the likes of Tipperary would suit her. “She’s very small so she can’t run in a handicap so it would have to be a conditions race that would suit her. We might have to travel a bit with her.” However, some familiar names from last season will be missing this year as he explained: “Killourney has been sold to Australia, while Tipitena, Nitro Boost and Lethal Promise are three mares that are all off to stud.”
