YOU don’t particularly expect to see future stars at Limerick, but there might have been an exception on Sunday, when the former French Breaken – wearing the Joe Donnelly colours of Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo – won the opening maiden hurdle.

His rivals were nothing special, but he beat them by 17 lengths or more and could easily have managed quite a bit further by the look of it.

More importantly, his was the fastest winning time of four two-mile hurdles on the card, and that despite his carrying more weight than the other three winners also.

Put it all together and I make this a 139 timefigure, which is a long way off the 165 of his stable-companion Klassical Dream but within touching distance of many of the other better novice hurdlers seen so far this term.

Breaken comes out 12 faster than the fairly useful Emily Moon in the mares’ hurdle on the same card and seems a gelding we will be hearing plenty more of hereafter.

Both chase winners on the Limerick card seemed to run useful overall times (though there is little to compare them with), Burrows Saint taking the Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase and Goulane Chosen the extended two-mile handicap chase, both with 144 timefigures.

Acapella Bourgeois took a couple of notable scalps in Yorkhill and Polidam when claiming the Suir Valley Chase at Clonmel early in the period under review, though a 143 timefigure does not definitively identify him as back to his 150 best.

The action was pretty quiet over jumps in Britain again in the lead-up to Aintree, with the best winning timefigures coming from Deauville Dancer (138) at Wincanton on Monday week and Princeton Royale (142) at Ascot last Sunday.

AMERICA

Meanwhile, with senior US horses flying the Stars and Stripes with distinction in Dubai, there looked to be a significant Kentucky Derby trial at Gulfstream Park, where the unbeaten Maximum Security won quite a competitive Florida Derby by clear margins. However, the time looks nothing special, and TimeformUS confirmed a figure of 116 (a bit less on a European scale), commenting that the pace had been slow.

Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Game Winner probably remains in pole position despite having been nosed out by Omaha Beach in a division of the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn in March.