Billy Lee chasing big Ballyhane pot at Naas on Matilda Picotte

Jockey Billy Lee has upcoming big money prizes in his sights beginning with the €300,000 Ballyane Stakes at Naas on bank holiday Monday.

Currently battling it out with Colin Keane at the top of the jockey’s championship, Lee teams up with the Kieran Cotter-trained Matilda Picotte in the third renewal of a lucrative restricted contest for two-year-olds.

On Tuesday Lee switches to Deauville for a Group One date with Pearls Galore in the Prix Rothschild.

The Paddy Twomey-trained mare is joined in the seven-runner mile event, off at 2.33pm Irish time, by Aidan O’Brien’s Tenebrism.

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Ryan Moore’s mount landed the Group One Prix Jean Prat on her last trip to Deauville and will try to emulate her former stable companion Mother Earth who won the €300,000 contest a year ago.

Prior to that Moore too is at Naas to team up with a trio of Ballydoyle two-year-olds, including Victoria Road in the Ballyhane.

Aidan O’Brien landed the inaugural running of the race in 2020 with the 22-1 Chief Little Hawk. The warm favourite Sacred Bridge obliged for the Juddmonte team last year.

Progressive Rousing Encore

Neither represented any fairy tale “little guy” success for such a big pot but what both had in common was a high draw.

With ease likely in the ground, a similar stall position could prove a significant plus and no one is drawn wider than Matilda Picotte.

Only Badb can top her of those with official ratings and the pair filled the placings behind Statuette at Group Two level last time.

Rousing Encore, one of a pair of cross-channel hopefuls in a 24-runner field, represents strong Coventry Stakes form although it is comparatively unknown factors like Ocean Quest, Apricot Twist and Coralillo that could prove most dangerous.

The latter on her only start at Fairyhouse and one of her trainers, Patrick Harty, reported: “She won impressively on debut. I wasn’t surprised by her winning but was certainly impressed by how she quickened up to take the lead so easily. She ran a little bit green when she got to the front, but I’d like to think that a faster pace will only give her more of a chance.”

Apricot Twist represents last year’s winning team and could hardly have been more impressive in a wide-margin course and distance debut recently.

She too has a high draw but any significant ease in the going may help Matilda Picotte more.

Her trainer made unfortunate financial headlines in May with fines and costs totalling €35,000 — slightly reduced on appeal — on the back of an inspection of his premises in 2021 following a positive test for the prohibited substance cobalt from a winner he saddled in Dundalk a month before.

Monday’s €150,000 big-race first prize would certainly provide Cotter with a happier outcome.

Billy Lee also teams up on Monday with Holdonfordearlife who looked aptly named on his last start at the Curragh when diving sharply left. First-time blinkers could help the jockey in a nursery contest.

Monday’s other fixture is in Cork where the Royal Ascot winner Stratum reverts to jumping for a conditions hurdle.

Ronald Pump makes a quick reappearance in the same race five days after finishing seventh in the Galway Plate.

Ronald Pump’s 154 rating

It was a decent effort that reflected a recent upswing in form for the Matthew Smith team. Ronald Pump hasn’t won since the end of 2019 but his best hurdles efforts entitle him to a lofty 154 rating and he is unbeaten in two previous starts at Cork.

In other news, apprentice jockey Wesley Joyce remains in intensive care at Galway University Hospital following his fall at Ballybrit on Thursday.

The 19-year-old’s mount fly-leapt at a road crossing when leading the Listed Corrib Stakes and unseated her jockey. His condition appears to have improved somewhat over the weekend.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s senior medical officer, Dr Jennifer Pugh, reported on Sunday: “Wesley has continued to stabilise since his fall at Galway on Thursday. He sustained major trauma to his chest and as such he remains ventilated in ICU in University Hospital Galway in order to help him breathe. Wesley was taken off the ventilator for a brief period yesterday where he was able to respond to family members, which was positive.”

Cross-channel jockey Laura Pearson is set for a lengthy spell on the injury sidelines after being found to have fractured vertebrae in her neck in a fall at Epsom on Thursday after her saddle slipped.

“The tests carried out have revealed that Laura has fractured the C7 vertebrae in her neck. It’s a stable fracture that won’t require an operation but she will be in a neck brace for a week. She’ll be back,” said Pearson’s agent, Steven Croft.