Preview and tips for Saturday’s Autumn Festival card at Curragh Racecourse

Two days of racing this weekend kicks off at the Curragh on Saturday with an eight-race card that is highlighted by Europe’s richest race for juveniles - the Goffs Million.

Read below to discover the latest tips and preview of the Curragh card with data and insights provided by the expert racecards available on The Horse's Mouth.

The feature race of the day is the Goffs Million and fourteen runners are set to tackle the two-year-old contest over seven furlongs and battle for the €500,000 top prize, won last year by the Paddy Twomey-trained One Look and the trainer has another representative heading to the Curragh this year in American Bar.

However, the powerhouse yard of Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien has another strong hand in the race and Antelope Canyon should be in the mix, taking a big leap forward having landed an 11-runner maiden at Naas nine days ago to build on a debut fifth. Aidan’s son, Joseph, has arguably the next best in the race with Apples And Bananas, a winner of a Listed contest at Deauville 42 days ago to back up a Killarney maiden win in July.

Sky Sports Racing presenter Callum Helliwell has cast his eye over the race for the Kildare Nationalist and said of the big race: “This race has completely flipped on its head due to the absence of The Lion In Winter, who was rumoured to be going for this but is now heading to Newmarket instead for the Dewhurst in a couple of weeks time.

“Aidan O’Brien still has a couple of irons to fire, Antelope Canyon being one of them, he carries the blinkers which is a concern with a two-year-old but showed a good attitude to win last time out when not well-fancied and this is a big step up in class. The other runner for O’Brien is Garden Of Eden, who ran a very good second behind Chantez last time out.

“But the selection for me has to be Apples And Bananas, who has done very little wrong in three career starts, a winner of his last two and was really, really impressive in Listed company over in Deauville, he put that race to bed in a matter of strides and Joseph O’Brien is on fire so off a rating of 100, Apples And Bananas is probably better than that rating so he is my pick for this race.” Before all that though, racing gets underway at 1.25pm with a six furlong maiden contest and the first day of action comes to a close with a 17-runner handicap at 5.30pm.

Trainer Jessica Harrington, who has a 10% strike rate at the Curragh, could be the way to go in race one (1.25) with Night Magic in the six furlong maiden to kick the card off, shaping better than sixth of 14 in a very hot Leopardstown maiden last time out.

A field of ten tackle the Goffs 500 to mark race two on the Curragh card (2.00) over six furlongs and with €250,000 up for grabs to the winner, with preference heading the way of Harrington once again with Nancy J, a winner of a 16-runner maiden on debut and a better than advertised fifth last time out, dropping back in trip here should suit the two-year-old. Of her rivals, Lightning Bear rates the main danger off the back of a win at Down Royal and on average speed, is the quickest horse in this race on the expected good ground having hit 61.06kph when landing that Down Royal contest.

The third race of the afternoon (2.35) is the Group 2 Beresford Stakes over the mile trip and Aidan O’Brien is taken to land this race for a remarkable 22nd time with Trinity College, a superbly-bred son of Dubawi that stormed clear to win at Galway last time. Stablemate Lambourn is taken to fill the second spot for Coolmore, unbeaten in two starts including a Listed contest at Craon last month in France.

A 17-runner handicap is race four of the afternoon at 3.10 and plenty are in with a shout, but Keke arrives at the top of his game for trainer Ed Lynam with a runner who completed a hat-trick earlier this year when landing a six furlong handicap, shaped well when fourth of 25 at this track last time out and has a 50% success rate of at least finishing in the places when heading to the Curragh.

After the aforementioned Goffs Million is a six furlong maiden at 4.20 and Pansy Poe is the selection here, a solid third in a course and distance maiden 35 days ago who can go a couple of spots better while the penultimate race on Saturday (4.55) can go the way of Forlio, a good third at Roscommon when left ideally placed last time out and shaped a lot better than that result.

Finally, the card comes to a close with the 17-runner handicap (5.30) and preference in the finale heads the way of Mehman for trainer Gerard O’Leary, off for 12 weeks and returned with a food fourth at Navan last time out and is only 1lb up in the weights here for that run so he could well be spot on for this.

Curragh selections - Saturday 

1.25 - Night magic 

2.00 - Nancy J 

2.35 - Trinity College 

3.10 - Keke 

3.45 - Apples and Bananas 

4.20 - Pansy Poe 

4.55 - Folio 

5.30 - Mehman