THERE is only one festival I am hearing about from my kids and that is this Electric Picnic!”

Johnny Murtagh isn’t the only one struggling to get used to a change in title for the Irish Champions Festival but there is no doubt about the stock he places on one of the biggest weekends on the Irish racing calendar.

It’s a weekend/festival that has served him so well. He got his first Group 1 winner as a trainer when Champers Elysees blasted home for Colin Keane in the Matron three years ago before Sonnyboyliston scored for him in the Northfields Handicap the following day.

That latter-mentioned horse gave Murtagh his first classic win in the Irish St Leger the following year and last year the Curragh-based trainer won his second Northfields through Kerkiyra, who remarkably led home a one-two-three for him.

The Bohermeen, Co Meath man is, as ever, in good form as he holds court for a group of journalists and racecourse officials around his kitchen, taking a few jokes about where his county allegiances are now.

It’s not long since his two daughters Lauren and Grace lined out for Kildare ladies team that beat Clare to win an All-Ireland intermediate title at Croke Park and while the Irish Champions Festival is upcoming, Murtagh isn’t looking much further than a first round championship match for Milltown against Carbery that night.

The likes of Kerkiyra, Mashhoor, Ladies Church, Cadeau Belle and Clounmacon have popped up in good races for Murtagh this term. It’s been a solid season but you get the feeling, from the way he’s talking now, that he’d love to be challenging higher still and nothing focuses the mind on that more than next week’s two-day festival, which resonates highly at Collaghknock Glebe.

“It’s tough going in Ireland,” he muses. “The two-year-old maidens are so hard to win. You’re tending to stray away from them with some horses and go for the auction maidens where before you might have one 6/4 favourite to take on but now you probably have five or six to take on, coming from the likes of Ger Lyons, Willie McCreery, Donnacha and Joseph.

“The standard has risen so high, if you can finish second in a maiden in Ireland, you’re getting three calls on the way home from America, Hong Kong, Australia and so on. We’re losing a lot of horses.

“People talk about the big races having small fields - this is why. I had a good horse there for the Aga Khan, Sharlouk, he was getting ready for the Jersey, he scoped badly beforehand so we didn’t run.

“The agent came in, looked at him, and was told he’s not for sale, we’re going to race him again. They just kept coming back and back again, until they hit on the number and you can’t say no then.

“We’ve good prize money compared to Britain, but when you compare that to Australia, Hong Kong and all other big racing nations, we have only okay prize money, and that is the situation.”

While Murtagh’s squad for the Irish Champions Festival might lack a standout star, you certainly wouldn’t rule him out of hitting the target. As Tony Keenan astutely pointed out in his column on these pages last month, no trainer has got near his 22 handicap winners at the Curragh since 2020.

He trained a one-two-three in the Northfields Handicap last season and that 10-furlong contest, in which he could be triple handed, looks his best chance of a winner again.

“It’s a huge weekend,” he says. “You need to have horses running there. It’s on the world stage. When Champers Elysees won the Matron, it was huge. As a trainer, that is where I want to be.

“It’s not easy and it’s getting harder every year to have those good horses but this is what we’re working for.”

WE’RE going to let Cadeau Belle take her chance in the Matron. We took her over to Ascot for a Group 3 at the end of July and it just didn’t work out for her. I thought she had a favourite’s chance of winning, she had been going really well at home but maybe it was due to her having only the two starts going over.

Jamie Spencer said she was a little bit hard to saddle and she was keen to the start, she boiled over and she never really settled. I’m going to forgive her because I did think she was progressive.

Mashhoor is going to run in the Group 3 Paddy Power Stakes back over a mile and a half. We went 10 furlongs with him at York but Ben said he was never flowing along like he did at the Curragh, and they just quickened by him in the straight. We’ll ride him a bit more quietly, take a lead and a mile and a half should really suit him at Leopardstown.

We have Carrytheone and Fast Tara in the Sovereign Path. Carrytheone is very consistent but quite high in the weights. I might put one of my claimers on him to help him with the weight. Fast Tara would only run if the ground was on the easy side.

I’m going to put blinkers on Ladies Church in the Flying Five. I think running her in Goodwood (soft ground in King George Stakes) might have left a mark on her.

I thought she had a chance in the Nunthorpe back on quick ground but they went so quick for her, she never really got into the race.

I still think she is a Group 2 standard filly and if she put it altogether there is a big day in her.

The Northfields Handicap is probably the best chance we have of getting a winner again. Save Your Love did it well at Leopardstown on his previous run.

Angels Wrath has been running in listed and Group 3 races and maybe dropping back into a handicap now might be her big chance to win a big pot.

I’d say Take Heart is my best chance of a winner all weekend - he is progressing nicely.