Manton trainer Brian Meehan eyes Group Three prizes at Newbury on Saturday
Agent Murphy (Photo from the Brian Meehan website)Here's a local tip for this weekend's racing: Agent Murphy heads nine entries for the £60,000 Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes (2.10pm) over 12 furlongs, the first of three Group Three contests at Newbury this Saturday (April 16) - Newbury's Spring Trials Weekend.
Trained at Manton by Brian Meehan, Agent Murphy produced a career-best performance at Newbury in August when bounding to a five-length victory in the Group Three Betfred Geoffrey Freer Stakes.
Five-year-old Agent Murphy, the son of Cape Cross, finished second to Order Of St George in the Group One Irish St Leger at the Curragh and was fourth on his reappearance in the valuable H H The Emirs Trophy at Doha, Qatar, in February.
Meehan believes a mile and a half or a mile and five furlongs is probably his ideal trip: "Agent Murphy is in good order. He won the Geoffrey Freer impressively at Newbury last season and the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes looks a good spot for him."
Jimmy Fortune, Agent Murphy's regular rider, will be with him again at Newbury.
Meehan has also entered Blue Bayou in the meeting's £60,000 Group Three Dubai Duty Free Stakes (2.40pm), a trial for the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.
The daughter of Bahamian Bounty, Blue Bayou won the Group Three Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket in August - two months earlier she had won impressively at Haydock.
In September she came fifth to the champion two-year-old filly Minding in the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh: "It was a rough race for her at the Curragh. She ran OK but things didn't quite work out and it wasn't her day."
Brian Meehan says she is in good order and working very well, but he has quite serious concerns about the ground: "So we will have to see."
On Saturday Dubai Duty Free will be celebrating 21 years of sponsorship, having first backed Newbury's Classic trial in 1996 when it was won by the outstanding Bosra Sham.
Newbury Spring Trials Weekend:
Friday, April 15: gates open noon - first race 1.45pm. Saturday, April 16: gates open 11.00am - first race 1.35pm.