ADJUSTMENTS to the flat racing programme mean that the turf season has started with a steady flow, instead of the usual drip feed, and that is most welcome to trainers and punters.

Add in the good recent weather which has allowed for decent ground, and flat trainers have been more than happy to send out their runners in these early stages. There 17 different winning trainers from the first three fixtures, illustrating a healthy competition level, and that theme continues into Leopardstown today, where three classic trials have been well supported and most fascinating as a result.

The ground is good to yielding at Leopardstown today, and that has very much been a factor for Ger Lyons running his two top juveniles from last season Dr Zempf and Sacred Bridge, in the respective Ballylinch Stud-sponsored Guineas Trials (2.35 & 3.10).

Both were perhaps a little bit disappointing when last seen at Newmarket - Dr Zempf finished sixth in the Middle Park and Sacred Bridge was eighth in the Cheveley Park - but they remain horses with significant potential at the top level.

Speaking to The Irish Field yesterday, Lyons said: “I was half thinking that these horses wouldn’t start this weekend when I was initially looking at the programme because you’d expect there to be heavy ground but with the weather that’s in it, the ground is fine. I can start them all off here instead of working them again and we can see where we lie.

Decide

“Conditions are allowing me to run them so I’m running them because they’re trials and I want to see them and then we can decide whether we proceed or need to readdress. I have no interest in racecourse gallops per se.”

Dr Zempf has taken a similar line to Lyons’s Siskin, having taken on the Railway and Phoenix Stakes, and he was only just touched off in the latter Group 1. He clear best on ratings in today’s seven-furlong contest and has been made favourite to make a winning start.

“On ratings he has to win,” Lyons said. “If he’s a Guineas horse he has to win. I’d like to think he’s a Guineas horse but I need to see it on the track so for that to be the case, he needs to be impressive.

“He is training well and he seems to have done well from two to three but at the minute the jury is out but that’s what the trial is for - to tell me where he is.”

Sacred Bridge was four from four and most impressive when winning the Round Tower Stakes before disappointing at Newmarket. Similarly, she is top-rated for her trial today, and tops the market as well, while Lyons also runs course-and-distance listed winner Panama Red.

Best horse

“Sacred Bridge is the best horse in the race,” he said. “She’s done everything right. She’s bred to get further and that’s the only box we have to tick. If she gets the trip, she’ll frighten the life out of anything.

“If she gets the trip we’ll see whether she is a Guineas filly but that is the route we’re going at the moment. She might end up being a sprinter. What I want to see with her is, are we taking the right route trip-wise.

“Sacred Bridge is the best filly of the two, simple as. Panama Red shows nothing at home, she saves it all for the track. She’s already a course-and-distance listed winner, so it was a no brainer to step up to a Group 3. She has a bad draw but he season starts here, and if she got Group 3-placed, it would be a bonus.”

Williams hoping long-term plan pays off in Scottish National

IF the Coral Scottish Grand National (3.35) feels like its early, it is, and the reasons for that are well explained by Donn McClean in his betting column for the race on page 62.

Trying to take advantage of an earlier renewal is Christian Williams, who has had another fine season, and trains the two market leaders for the four-mile contest: Win My Wings and Kitty’s Light.

The Welsh native, speaking to Racing TV this week, said: “We figured six months ago that with it coming before Aintree this year it might not be as strong as normal so we were keen to target it.

“Kitty’s is only six and nothing that age has won it, but they told me last year a five-year-old couldn’t win the bet365 Gold Cup and he did everything but win it. We don’t take much notice of statistics, especially where he is concerned.

“The ground should be perfect for the pair of them, it was decent ground at Newcastle when the mare won (Win My Wings) so she should have a good chance, she was very impressive at Newcastle. That was her first time over an extended trip and she should have learned a good bit from that.”

Three Irish horses - John McConnell’s Streets Of Doyen and the Pat Fahy pair History Of Fashion and Stormy Judge - are not without a chance of becoming the first Irish-trained winner of the race.