BEST of luck to the connections of all 18 thoroughbreds taking part in today’s Racehorse to Riding Horse Class in the RDS. Sponsored by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, the class kicks off at 1pm in Ring 1.

The favourite may well be Sizing John, the triple Gold Cup winner from 2017. Regular readers will have noticed his name popping up at Treo Eile events and at shows in Co Cork, Meath and North Co Dublin. Kate Harrington will do the steering today.

Spectators could be forgiven for thinking they were at Cheltenham, such is the quality of retired stars on show in Ballsbridge this afternoon. There’s two Irish Grand National winners taking part in Burrows Saint (Suzy Barkley) and General Principle (Seainin Mahon), the latter partnership hoping to repeat last year’s Dublin win.

Then there’s multiple Grade 1 winner Douvan (Clare Ricketts), Stayers’ Hurdle hero Penhill (Kim Ronan), Melbourne Cup third Max Dynamite (Mary Murphy) and Aintree Grand National runner-up Balko Des Flos (Kate Molony), plus Welsh National winner Raz De Maree (Jenny Murphy) and Irish Champion Hurdle winner Supasundae (Grace Dehaene).

Not forgetting crowd favourite Snow Falcon (Emma Connolly) and some other dark horses too, this should be a real treat for onlookers.