Epona Plays

(W. McCreery)

This filly showed plenty of promise on both her outings last season and can surely make her mark in a maiden before going on to hold her own in better company. Ultimately she will come into her own over middle distances and this is a highly competitive and difficult division to thrive in, but there are grounds for believing that she can flourish once racing resumes.

Firstly, as a daughter of Australia she is bred to be a better three-year-old, and her three elder siblings, all of whom were winners, did much better at three than they did as juveniles. It is encouraging that Epona Plays shaped as well as she did on her two outings in the autumn.

On her debut, she was sent off at 50/1 for a maiden at Gowran Park and she showed up well to take fourth behind the subsequently Group 3-placed Even So.

A somewhat slow start at Leopardstown the following month compromised her chances but she finished out her race in fine style to be beaten just over two lengths by Amma Grace in what looked a smart mile maiden.

It would come as no surprise if she were to compete well at stakes level through the second half of the season.

Galeola

(Ms. S.Lavery)

In the space of just two months last season this mare was shaping up to be one of, if not the most, progressive handicappers in the country but a setback sustained in August kept her off the track for the remainder of the campaign.

Up to that point this daughter of Rip Van Winkle had made quite an impression and she could be counted unlucky not to have won all four of her starts in handicaps.

After three maiden runs which offered some promise, Galeola bolted up on her handicap debut over a mile and seven furlongs at Leopardstown in June. Ten days later a 9lb rise in the weights coupled with a drop back to a mile and a half at Tipperary proved no obstacle to success as she won easily once more.

Bolting

She was beaten by just over a neck into third in the Ladies Derby next time when looking a likely winner for most of the straight before then bolting up on her return to the same course and distance over which she recorded her first triumph.

The ease with which she won on her last start, which was achieved off a 20lb higher mark than the one she first won off, was striking, to say the least.

At that point she looked as though she could at least challenge for a major staying handicap or even progress into a stakes class stayer and the hope is that she will be able to reach those heights over the course of 2020.

Valeria Messalina

(Mrs J. Harrington)

A feature of the 2019 campaign was the stunning array of talent which Jessica Harrington could call upon from the ranks of her juvenile fillies and deservedly this yielded a series of notable triumphs towards the end of last season.

Valeria Messalina has yet to reach the heights of some of her contemporaries but in two runs last autumn she showed a considerable level of ability and she will not be one to underestimate when the likes of the Irish 1000 Guineas come around.

On her debut, she turned in a very likeable front-running effort to edge out the useful Now The King in a seven-furlong Naas maiden in September.

The following month she was sent to Newmarket for the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes where she acquitted herself well to finish a close second to Rose Of Kildare.

Pattern

It is no easy task to go from winning a maiden first time to contesting a pattern race, and with this in mind the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor did especially well to lose out by just a neck at Newmarket.

In a tight three-way finish she split fillies who had a total of 21 previous runs between them and one can’t help but feel that with a little more experience to aid the runner-up the result could have been an appreciably different one.

Valeria Messalina will have to step forward if she is to hold her own at classic level but she has the potential to do so.

Vatican City

(A.P. O’Brien)

Each season brings with it a host of fascinating three-year-old prospects from Ballydoyle and one of the most interesting for this year is this especially well-bred son of Galileo.

A brother to Gleneagles and a pair of Group 1-winning fillies in Marvellous and Happily, Vatican City boasts some impressive credentials and he showed enough in a brief autumn campaign to suggest that he could be a contender for some nice prizes over the course of 2020.

On his debut, he had to settle for fifth in a Newmarket maiden in early October but he did catch the eye with some reasonable late progress behind Kinross.

For his next start at Dundalk several weeks later, he was a strongly supported 1/2 favourite for a seven-furlong maiden and he won accordingly. He was travelling much the best turning for home and only needed to be nudged along in the closing stages to win easily.

The Dundalk race is light years removed from some of the tests that this colt could face this summer but he gave the impression that he could progress into a high-class three-year-old and is encouraging to note that all five of his brothers and sisters have at least been placed at the highest level during their classic season.

Whatharm

(P.J. Flynn)

This five-year-old notched up three handicap victories over the course of last season and he ended his campaign by defying a career-high rating of 69 at Dundalk in December. He will start the season off a mark of 77 but there are grounds for believing that he can keep pace with his rise up the ratings.

Two of his three victories have come over a mile but his final success and his best performance was achieved over seven furlongs and it is over that distance that he could prosper this year.

The form of Whatharm’s Dundalk success five days before Christmas has been franked on a number of occasions since then with the second, third, fifth and ninth-placed runners all going to win in the following months.

His revised rating means that he will have to step forward again if he is to make his mark over the coming months, but a well-run seven furlongs on a sound surface should bring out the best in him and enable him to add to his haul during the summer.