AASHEQ, runner up to Epsom Derby favourite US Army Ranger at the Curragh last Sunday, has been added to the Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas at the second entry stage.

Trained by Dermot Weld, Aasheq is owned by Hamdan Al Maktoum who also owns Kevin Prendergast’s recent Madrid Handicap winner Awtaad, another added to the Guineas this week. The third colt put into the classic this week is the John Oxx-trained Alphonsus, a well-bred Invincible Spirit colt who finished second to Washington DC at Dundalk last weekend.

There are now 63 entries for the Irish 2000 Guineas which will be run at the Curragh on May 21st.

The Kevin Prendergast-trained Cool Thunder, Love Potion trained by David Wachman, Radiantly trained by Willie McCreery and Little Avon trained in Britain by Ralph Beckett have been added to the entries for the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas. That race now has 52 entries.

TEST OF TIME

The Tattersalls Irish Guineas Festival also features the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup in which Royal Ascot winner Time Test could make his reappearance. Roger Charlton’s four-year-old was an impressive winner of the Tercentenary Stakes last year and a return for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at the big meeting in June could also be on the cards.

Charlton said: “He’s basically a mile-and-a-quarter horse, which we saw at Ascot, and he wants fast ground. We really haven’t had that. We certainly didn’t have it in the Breeders’ Cup, the ground was horrible, and we had a wide draw. I think you have to enter up and see. See what shows up and what you want to do nearer the time.”

The Currragh will stage a race to honour European and world champion racemare Snow Fairy on August 28th. Supported by the mare’s owner and breeder Mrs Cristina Patino, the Group 3 Snow Fairy Stakes is for fillies and mares over nine furlongs.

Mrs Patino’s Anamoine Ltd also sponsors the Big Bad Bob Gladness Stakes and other races during the season to promote Elusive Pimpernel who resides as a stallion at the Irish National Stud.