The going for the third day of Guineas weekend at the Curragh is set to be a little slower than the previous two days but the track didn’t get quite the volume of rain that was forecast overnight though there are shower grounds around still. The ground is currently good on both tracks.
A further going change could have a significant bearing on the featured Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas at 3.45 and one person banking on rain is Billy Lee who has chosen to ride Purple Lily ahead of Vespertilio and A Lilac Rolla, fillies with perhaps more obvious mile form claims.
Purple Lily would not be the first strong stayer to win this race but was beaten by one that lacked race fitness last time in the Salsabil Stakes at Navan and looks short enough at current prices.
Race favourite Opera Singer was the top-rated filly in Europe last year on 118 but things have not gone smoothly for her during the spring, and her trainer seems to be using this race more as a starting point than anything else, so she could be worth opposing.
Of the rest, Fallen Angel looked good in the winning the Moyglare at this track last September, the form working out well in behind subsequently, and while she disappointed at Newmarket earlier in the month, she had bits and pieces of excuses with the ground, the track and her position in the race.
The one that interests me at a big price however is BLUEDRUM and she has is selected in the hope there will be some good in the going by the time of the race.
She beat colts on debut to win what turned out to be a strong maiden at Naas last September, the runner-up now rated 102 and third 97, the fourth also winning next time, all this coming at time when her stable were struggling a little for juvenile winners.
That victory came on good-yielding but missed her intended reappearance at Leopardstown in April due to very testing ground before returning on soft in the Athasi where she shaped better than the result, having gotten behind after shifting markedly left at the stalls.
She did finish off well then despite still looking in need of the experience, and the step up to a mile should suit so makes some each-way appeal with four places on offer.
Nudge, nudge…
The other Group 1 on the card, the Tattersalls Gold Cup at 3.10, features the boom-or-bust Auguste Rodin, and guessing what side of the stable he got out of this morning makes little appeal, while Gregarina is of some interest in the Lanwades Stud Stakes at 2.35.
Apparently the third string of the Joseph O’Brien runners on jockey bookings, she put up a remarkable performance to win the Athasi Stakes on stable debut at this track earlier in the month. Having raced in last off a slow pace, she managed to pass all her rivals in the closing stages to win while being faster than anything in the field in each of the last four furlongs, the three she beat all ridden prominently.
Perhaps the steady gallop produced a strange result but she had been beaten just half a length but the now 116-rated Poker Face at Deauville last summer and holds decent claims.
In the other Group race on the card, the Heider Family Stables Gallinule Stakes at 4.15, The Equator makes some appeal having won well on seasonal return at a time when the Ballydoyle runners were improving for a run, but again jockey bookings suggest he is down the pecking order.
The most appealing betting race on the card, however, might be the QuinnBet Spring Fillies Handicap at 2.00 where CHEEKY WINK is the selection. She was entered in the Irish 1,000 Guineas until recently and while her mark of 90 may appear high on what she has achieved so far, there are reasons to think there is more to come, not least that Group 1 entry.
She was an eye-catcher on debut at Leopardstown last October, making a big move in the third quarter of the race to challenge up the unfavoured far side of the track before flattening out late to finish fifth, her trainer’s juveniles tending to improve plenty for their initial start.
None of the first, second or fourth from that race have run since but it still looks a deep race with the third, sixth and ninth have all won since and Cheeky Wink herself broke her duck at Gowran last month over nine-and-a-half furlongs, impressing by how she travelled and always going best, shaping as if a return to shorter would suit.
She beat a race-fit rival on that occasion that has won well since in Total Look, that one’s trainer commenting afterwards that he thinks his horse could be up to competing in premier handicap.
Johnny Murtagh then decided to run Cheeky Wink in a Group 3 at Leopardstown (replay below) but it turned out to be a messy race from which it was hard to draw conclusions; Cheeky Wink was ridden forward near a particularly slow pace (Timeform at the finishing speed percentage as 114%) which didn’t suit and she is well worth another chance considering the promise of her two previous runs.
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Murtagh has long had a good record in handicaps over Curragh classic weekends and is 5 from 35 with 12 places with his handicap runners at this meeting, winning this race in 2021 with a Create Belief, another maiden winner that had excuses in a stakes races before coming here.
Summer apparently begins next week – though one couldn’t be certain looking at the weather – and this column will be changing focus slightly over the next while. Many Sundays over the summer are barren in Irish racing, between blank days and ordinary racing, and the intention is to follow the better racing here so there will be a few more weekday columns.
Preview posted at 0900 BST on 26/05/24
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