Via Sistina tops a field of nine runners for the Group 1 Yulong Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.

A first runner in an Irish Group 1 race for trainer George Boughey, the five-year-old is already a Group 3 winner in France and more recently landed the Group 2 Howden Dahlia Stakes at Newmarket. She will again be ridden by Jamie Spencer. Another raider from across the Irish Sea is the Hughie Morrison-trained Stay Alert, a Group 3 winner at Newbury last September, and the mount of Ronan Whelan.

Heading the opposition to the English raiders is Aidan O'Brien’s recent French Oaks runner-up Never Ending Story. Joseph O'Brien runs both his Group 1 winner Above The Curve and Goldana, successful in the Lester Piggott Gladness Stakes at the Curragh in April.

Third in the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas, Comhra will take her chance for Jim Bolger, while Paddy Twomey’s Rosscarbery is another leading contender having made a winning seasonal return in the Group 3 Darley Munster Oaks at Cork. The Willie McCreery-trained Insinuendo and Jessica Harrington’s Trevaunance are also worthy of their places in the 10-furlong contest.

A field of seven are set for the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes with all eyes on the Aidan O'Brien-trained Albany Stakes runner-up Matrika. She got the better of Joseph O'Brien’s Grand Job to win her maiden over this course and distance and the pair also renew rivalry with the fourth-placed Paddy Twomey-trained Gunzburg which has since enjoyed a winning turn at Down Royal.

Successful in the Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes at the Curragh last September, Al Riffa makes a highly anticipated return to action in the five-runner Group 3 Paddy Power International Stakes. Taking on Joseph O'Brien’s Group 1 scorer is Johnny Murtagh’s hat-trick seeker Mashoor, the winner of the FBD Hotels & Resorts Orby Stakes at the Curragh on his most recent outing, another last-time-out winner, the Noel Meade-trained Layfayette, the long-absent Alfred Munnings, trained by Aidan O'Brien, and Willie McCreery’s Self Belief.

Recent winners Dancing Tango, from the Joseph O'Brien stable, and Gordon Elliott’s In From The Cold head the 15 runners for the Kildare Village Ladies Derby Handicap while Extensio, winner of the Ladies Derby for trainer Pat O’Donnell a year ago, is among the 17 contenders for the concluding DMG Media Irish EBF Handicap in which Line Out will be a first Curragh runner for the training partnership of John Kiely and his nephew Thomas.

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