Spots in Breeders’ Cup juvenile turf races on line Sunday

The day after a tremendous Irish Champions card at Leopardstown, there is more high-class racing in Ireland on Sunday at The Curragh, which hosts a pair of important 2-year-old races as well as the Irish St. Leger.

The National Stakes for 2-year-old colts and fillies and the Moyglare Stud Stakes for 2-year-old fillies both are Group 1 races that are part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, the National linked to the BC Juvenile Turf and the Moyglare Stud to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Not surprisingly, the two strongest 2-year-old stables in Ireland, those of Aidan O’Brien and Jim Bolger, have prime contenders in the National, which is run over seven furlongs. O’Brien trains three of the race’s seven entrants, including antepost favorite Air Force Blue, who has won two of his three starts and exits a victory in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes over six furlongs. An American-bred by War Front, Air Force Blue looks entirely capable of handling the added distance on Sunday.

Bolger counters with Godolphin’s Herald the Dawn, a New Approach colt who already is a two-time winner over seven furlongs, including a win last out in the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at The Curragh. Victory by any of the other five would come as a surprise.

O’Brien has three fillies lined up for the Moyglare Stud, the highest-rated being Ballydoyle, a two-length course and distance winner in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes in her most recent start. Dermot Weld will run the exciting prospect Tanaza, twice a winner at Leopardstown to start her career, while Now Or Never was second last out to Bolger’s apparently good colt Herald the Dawn in the Futurity.

The card’s other Group 1 is the Irish St. Leger, which unlike many St. Leger races, like the English version Saturday, is open to older horses. However, it’s the lone 3-year-old in the race, the O’Brien-trained Order of St George, who’s the early favorite, with O’Brien taking him out of the English St. Leger in favor of this spot. Order of St George gets an 11-pound break in the weights from his elders and already is proven over Sunday’s 1 3/4-mile distance.

Brown Panther, though, is a worthy foe. He won this race last year by more than six lengths but might be short of his very best while starting for the first time since May.