Kevin Prendergast reveals big hopes for unraced two-year-old Friarstown

Would you like to hear about the unraced two-year-old colt who has been catching Kevin Prendergast’s eagle eye, so much so that the son of Dawn Approach has been christened a very sacred name? Of course you would.

He goes by the name Friarstown, the part of the Curragh where Prendergast has been training racehorses for more than six decades now. He would never name a bad one after his home patch, would he?

“He’s definitely a nice horse,” admits Prendergast. “He’s by Dawn Approach, and he is out of a good family, we like him. We were looking for a name for him and I said we’d call him Friarstown. I’ve had the name in mind for quite some time, it’s been booked for a while, and we like this lad so we’ve called him Friarstown.”

Friarstown is the future, Madhmoon might be the present. Last year’s Derby runner-up, who touched a low of 2.86 at Epsom before going down by just half a length to Anthony Van Dyck, is being aimed at the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh. His trainer thinks he will be even better this year too, and he is not the type to hype up his horses without good reason.

Prendergast said: “Madhmoon is ready to run. He’ll be heading for the JT Rogers Memorial [the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh if you’re part of the snowflake generation] and we’ll take in the Moresbridge Stakes at Naas first up. He wintered well, very well.”

He added: “Look, he didn’t do much wrong last year. We just got chinned in the Derby, he could have got the money on a different day if things had gone a bit differently. Basically a mile and a half around Epsom was probably as far as he likes to go. I’m hoping he’ll be better at four than he was at three. I think he looks even better this year. He’s done well and we’re hoping for the best.

“He won nearly half a million in prize-money last year. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? If I had one like him come along every year I’d be doing okay for myself.”