WITH all the juvenile Group 1 races now upon us, this is a really exciting time of the season.

It’s the time of year when you’re full of hope. You’re dreaming of that Group 1 winner that could be the one to really look forward to through the winter.

Fortunately, with the season we’ve had, I’ve probably never been so hopeful with my juveniles at this time of the year. Of course, hopes get dashed all the time, so we take nothing for granted.

I suppose we extended that hope further last night when Alpine Star won the Debutante Stakes, which is a brilliant race to win in its own right. I love the way she put her head down to battle and really kept going for Shane (Foley). As I wrote here earlier in the season, she doesn’t look much like her half sister Alpha Centauri, but she certainly has some of her class!

Shane said they went hard the whole way and she got a little bit lost in the middle of the race but when she got upsides, all she wanted to do was stick her head out.

The Debutante looked like a good race and I’m delighted for the Niarchos family who also have Albigna. We may have to keep these two fillies apart now but it’s a nice problem to have. I think Alpine Star needs a mile so we may be looking at the Fillies Mile or the Prix Marcel Boussac.

We also had Jungle Cove due to run in the Futurity Stakes and started off two nice colts - Aesop (Make Believe) and Golden Maze (Golden Horn) - in the maidens. They both ran nicely.

At home this week, the horses are in good form. We were hoping to run Cool Vixen in the Lowther Stakes on Thursday but unfortunately she didn’t scope clean and the ground was getting a bit too quick for her anyway. Servalan will take her chance today in the Group 2 City of York Stakes (see weekend runners’ notes below) and we are delighted to be represented. York is a fabulous meeting and the prize money is brilliant – amazingly, no race is worth less than £70,000.

The Ebor is now worth £1 million which is just amazing. Gone are the days when you could get into an Ebor and win with 8st on your back. It’s become more like a Group 2 race and it’s a much harder race to run in. It’s actually quite similar to the Melbourne Cup now.

And what can you say about Enable? She’s simply an amazing mare. She seems so relaxed and she looked the part on Wednesday – she probably looked as well as she ever has. Let’s hope she can go on to make it three in a row in the Arc. I was really impressed with Japan on Wednesday as well, particularly as he looked like he was winning in spite of the distance. Crystal Ocean is a brilliant horse, so anyone that beats him has to be right up to the standard.

On a sad note, like so many in the industry, I really was disappointed to hear the news about Pat Smullen not being able to ride in the ‘Champions race for Cancer Trials Ireland’ race he had done such fantastic work to organise.

Unfortunately, setbacks are so common with that horrible disease – it’s never ever a smooth process. I really wish Pat the best of luck with his treatment and I think the best thing we can all do is get behind the race next month and support it as best we can.

Away from racing, it was wonderful to see the Irish Dressage team qualify for the Olympics over at Rotterdam. It will be the first time ever we will we send a dressage team to the Olympics so it’s a wonderful development.

In contrast, the showjumpers struggled, which would have been a surprise to many. It just goes to show you, just like in racing, you can all the preparation and have all the form – but you need to show up and do it on the day.

ON the face of it Servalan looks up against it today in the Group 2 City of York Stakes (3:00) over at York. It’s a high class field headed by Laurens and she is still only a three-year-old taking on older horses.

I hope she is improving and she did it really well winning on her penultimate run at Naas, coming through traffic on the far rail. We wanted to get fast ground for her – that is what she needs – and with such fantastic prize money, it’s worth having a go. We also have a couple of other targets for her in Britain later in the season.

We run just two at Killarney. Onlyhuman ran a fine race at Galway considering he hit his head off the stalls coming out. He has done brilliantly since joining us this season and we’re trying him in what looks like an open listed Vincent O’Brien Ruby Stakes (2:30).

Unfortunately, he has been drawn in 16, which is absolutely no help around Killarney, and that will make things tough for him.

With Shane Foley coming over to York to ride Servalan, Tom Madden takes the ride and he will also ride my other runner, Building Bridges, in the apprentice handicap (4:05).

Building Bridges has just struggled a little since taking on handicaps but he has grown up a little lately and I’d be hopeful he can do better today.