Chemical takes Lenebane test We have an even split of three-year-olds and their older counterparts when the eight-runner Listed Lenebane Stakes headlines Roscommon's seven-race Flat card on Monday. Four-year-old Chemical Charge is the one to aim at with his 107 rating. Colin Keane is aboard this fellow in the Qatar Racing Limited silks and Ger Lyons' charge must concede weight away all round. Chemical Charge could easily be up to the task after a couple of second placings at stakes level at the Curragh. The most recent of these came about when the chestnut finished behind Ballydoyle's Sir Isaac Newton in the Group Three International on Derby weekend. Aidan O'Brien runs two in this near mile-and-a-half contest, Claudio Monteverdi and Lieutenant General. The former finished towards the rear behind Harzand in the Irish Derby just over a week ago. Meanwhile, Lieutenant General headed the weights in the Ulster Derby Handicap and ran creditably for third behind subsequent Irish Derby bronze medallist Stellar Mass. On the same afternoon at Down Royal, Simannka made it three in a row when stylishly taking the honours in the Ulster Oaks Handicap. Prior to that, Simannka's trainer Dermot Weld opinioned that the Mastercraftsman filly's 89 rating appeared on the high side. However, the grey is clearly progressive and now assessed as a 100 performer, the three-year-old has to be viewed as a major player under Pat Smullen in the Aga Khan's colours. Whatever their fate in the centrepiece of the evening, O'Brien and Lyons can strike elsewhere in the maidens. Sir Edwin Landseer, in the hands of Donnacha O'Brien, should be there or thereabouts in the opening Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden. That event is for two-year-olds, and the similarly-titled contest for three-year-olds an hour and a half later could go the way of Lyons' Savannah Storm.
