CAN you believe it? In three weeks’ time we will be waking up to the first day of the Longines Irish Champions Weekend. If Pat Keogh doesn’t get a rest before then, he will need one afterwards as he oversees the racing at Leopardstown on Saturday and the Curragh the following day. It promises to be a weekend of the best racing of the year.

Japan made headlines at York this week and the news that he is to take on the Japanese star Deirdre in the €1,250,000 Group 1 QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes is already whetting appetites.