The flat season is in full swing and Dermot Weld grabbed headlines

THE FLAT season is in full swing now and the headlines over the weekend went to Dermot Weld who dominated all the big races at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The Kildare handler has had his horses in sparkling form recently and he looks sure to have a big few weeks ahead, both at home and in England.

He got the ball rolling with Mustajeeb who ran out a very impressive winner of the Ard Glen Amethyst Stakes.

He travelled well throughout the race and he quickened up smartly to run away from the useful Brendan Bracken.

It was the first time the three-year-old had raced against older horses and that made the victory all the more impressive and he looks a big player in the Irish 2000 Guineas next month.

Weld and Smullen doubled up in the 1,000 Guineas trial with Afternoon Sunlight but she was made work very hard by the Aidan O’Brien trained Palace, with just a head separating the pair at the finish.

Weld completed the treble when Fascinating Rock was awarded the Derby Trial in the stewards room.

The John Oxx trained Ebanoran was first past the post but he drifted markedly right towards the finish and the stewards felt he caused enough interference to amend the result.

Fascinating Rock has now won all his starts this season and he looks a live Epsom Derby Contender. Speaking of the Derby, plenty of shrewd judges sat up and took notice of comments Aidan O’Brien made at a press day over the weekend.

The Wexford man is not on to make bold statements but he described antipost favorite Australia as “a Derby horse we’ve not had the like of before” .

O’Brien has had good winners of the race in the past with Galileo (2001), High Chaparral (2002), Camelot (2012) and last year’s hero Ruler Of The World and the fact that he rates this horse higher than those is significant.

The birds in the trees were singing about this horse during the Winter when word started to emerge from Ballydoyle that he was potentially ‘ as good a horse’ as O’Brien has trained and it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

National hunt action over the weekend came from Killarney, with the Kerry track staging day one of its May festival on Sunday.

The most valuable race on the card was won by the Mouse Morris trained Bailygreen.

With the jumps season now officially over our columnist Philip Rothwell finished the season as Wicklow’s top trainer with 17 winners.