Joe Rendall assesses the fallout from the weekend’s racing on both sides of the Irish Sea.
There’s been little respite in the succession of top-level racing which has come our way of late, and following Epsom and Royal Ascot it was the Curragh which took centre stage for their three-day Derby meeting.
Australia was rightly the headline act of the weekend, and it’s his performance in Saturday’s feature race which we'll consider first. In truth he completed the Epsom/Irish Derby double without needing to be at his best or telling us anything we didn't already know about him. The late defections of Kingston Hill and Geoffrey Chaucer meant he was left with a straightforward task and he didn't need to come out of first gear - or match his Epsom performance - to come out on top.
As a result Australia’s master rating has been left unchanged at 129p with only Kingman (132p) rated higher in the classic generation. Sterner tests lie ahead as Australia looks set to take on his elders, with a mid-season break followed by a drop back to ten furlongs for the Irish Champion Stakes reportedly next on his agenda. However, given how well he takes his racing it would be no surprise to see him line up in the Juddmonte International a month earlier.
Elsewhere on the card, Kool Kompany resumed his progression through the juvenile ranks after disappointing in the Coventry Stakes. Astute front-running tactics neutralized the disadvantage of his outside draw and he showed a good attitude to kick on in the final furlong. As a result he’s now rated 108, meaning the only higher-rated British two-year-olds are Royal Ascot winners The Wow Signal (111p) and Baitha Alga (111). The Prix Morny is reportedly under consideration next, but there seems little doubt he'll stay seven furlongs when the time comes and he rates as a major player in all the leading juvenile contests come the autumn.
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The most noteworthy performances in Britain came from Newcastle, where Angel Gabrial comprehensively reversed the Chester Cup form with Suegioo in the Northumberland Plate. Despite displaying what is becoming a characteristic tendency to hang right under pressure, Angel Gabrial’s impressive performance earned him a new master rating of 113. Connections are reportedly eyeing up pattern races next and although he’d clearly have to improve to be competitive at that level, that’s hard to rule out considering how much he’s progressed since being campaigned as a stayer.
The other performance worth mentioning on the card came from Danzeno who overcame a slow start and a failure to settle to win the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes fairly comfortably. Danzeno is now rated 114p and is held in the highest regard by Michael Appleby, though a possible tilt at the 2015 July Cup (mooted as a potential long-range target) looks a long way off this stage, for all he appeals as the type to keep progressing up the sprinting ladder.
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The Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes was the feature race at the Curragh on Sunday, and it was won by Thistle Bird who produced a career-best performance (118), fully justifying connections’ decision to keep her in training at six. This was the versatile Thistle Bird’s first Group 1 success and the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood (a race in which she finished a narrow runner-up last year) looks the next obvious target.
There was also Group 1 action in France as Noble Mission was denied a four-timer in the shadows of the winning post in the mile-and-a-half Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Noble Mission looked in complete control as he entered the final furlong three lengths to the good but he weakened quickly and was nabbed in the final strides by Spiritjim. Noble Mission’s master rating remains unchanged at 126 and it may be that ten furlongs proves to be his optimum trip as long the aggressive front-running tactics – which have been seen to such great effect this season – are employed. It seems likely he’ll have a break now, but given the improvement he’s shown this season races the Juddmonte International and Champion Stakes must be under consideration, although you feel he’d have to have his optimum conditions in order to enter calculations.
The racing remains as good as ever heading into Sandown’s Eclipse meeting and the three-day July Festival at Newmarket, and with the stars of this year’s classic generation set to take on their elders for the first time it is set to be an enthralling period.
