Excellent card at the Curragh

Thetre has been a brief lull in the Irish racing scene, but top class flat racing is back with a vengeance today at the Curragh with a strong card headed by four group races. Main feature is the Group One Phoenix Stakes for 2yo´s over 6 furlongs at 16.50 CET, always one of the top 2yo races of the year and already won 11 times by Aidan O´Brien. He saddles 3 of the 9 runners with his son Joseph aboard Cristoforo Colombo, presumably the best of the trio. He ran a good race at Royal Ascot but was then surprisingly beaten here by another Coolmore runner Probably (David Wachman/ Wayne Lordan), who reopposes on the same terms today. However the ground was very bad that day and on this better going we expect Aidan´s runner to take his revenge. Bungle Inthejungle (Mick Channon/ Martin Harley) won the Molecomb at Glorious Goodwood, but we do not think he beat the Irish cracks over this trip, while Wexford Opera (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning), a promising runner-up on his debut and not s een since, is the one for a possible surprise.

The Group Two Royal Whip over 10 furlongs at 15.50 has only 4 runners but is still a good race, with the amazingly consistent 7yo Famous Name (Dermot Weld/ Pat Smullen) opposed by the 3yo Born to Sea (John Oxx/ Johnny Murtagh). Famous Name has won18 races including a dozen Group Threes, but has failed to win at Group One or Two level, despite some smart performances. Admirable though he is, we think he will fail again as the task of giving 9 lbs to Born to Sea, the last foal out of Urban Sea and thus a half-brother to Sea the Stars and Galileo, will prove too much. He is possibly not quite as good as his brothers, but his second place in the Irish Derby shows that he is no slouch and this distance may be more suitable.

The Debutante Stakes over 7 furlongs for 2yo fillies at 16.20 is another Group Two and Oxx and Murtagh cam complete a double here with the unbeaten Harasiya. She is probably the best jubenile filly in Ireland and has won both her starts in excellent style. Magical Dream (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) and Diamond Sky (Jim Bolger/ Kevin Manning) were first and selond in a hot Galway maiden and are probably quite smart, but will have to show dramatic improvement to trouble the Aga Khan´s filly.

The final group race is the Phoenix Sprint over 6 furlongs at 17.20. The interesting runner here is the Australian-bred Starspangledbanner (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien), who was champion sprinter on 2010 after winning the Golden Jubilee and July Cup. He has been brought back into training after an abortive effort at stud. It is always difficult to predict how they will react after these problems and a break from racing of two years, but if he is anywhere near his old form he has to win here.

There is also an all-hurdles card at Downpatrick as well as flat racing in England at Leicester and Folkestone, but these are all of very modest quality, and frankly we would rather concentrate on the top level cards at the Curragh and in Deauville and leave these cards alone.