Five to follow: names to note at Leopardstown on Thursday
Tom Thurgood of racingtv.com takes a closer look at an exciting card at Leopardstown on Thursday evening, headlined by the rescheduled Group Two Romanised Minstrel Stakes. Enjoy all eight races from a bumper and high-class card live on Racing TV.
The rearranged Group Two Romanised Minstrel Stakes – intended for the Curragh last Sunday - adds further lustre to what is typically an informative card at Leopardstown and the track’s foremost fixture among its Thursday evening programme throughout the summer.
Aidan O’Brien has run many of his top juveniles and subsequent Classic horses - including Gleneagles, Churchill and Anthony Van Dyck as well as the filly Love – in the Tyros Stakes and Silver Flash Stakes in recent years, with five of the last 10 winners of the colts’ race going on to land Group One honours while a further three went on to place at the top level. Of the fillies, four of the last 10 Silver Flash winners have gone on to win a Group One with four more placed in that bracket subsequently.
We’re set for good races as well as future clues once again this time, and here are five names to note ahead of all the action from Foxrock. Join Donn McClean and Fran Berry on track for the best preview and analysis live on Racing TV!
TEN DEEP
“Our horses seem to like the two long straights here – the same as Cork and Leopardstown.”
So Paddy Twomey told Gary O’Brien after his unbeaten juvenile Deepone scored at Killarney last week and it’s notable that the trainer has – even by his standards – particularly good strike-rates at all three tracks and ticks along at 24% here at Leopardstown (1.1 A/E).
Ten Deep ran an eye-catching race on debut last time at the Irish Derby Festival, easily travelling up to the 2f marker and still sticking on even if she was passed by faster finishers after doing a bit too much early on at the Curragh.
The first-time tongue tie here on just her second start will put some off, but the yard has strong figures with such runners (26%, +£8.91, 1.24 A/E) and Twomey’s outstanding record in maidens reads even better when his runners have the benefit of at least one prior run (41.5%, +£54.49, 1.32 A/E).
YLANG YLANG
Aidan O’Brien has had a particularly good season so far with his juvenile fillies and this 1.5m guineas Frankel filly very much looks the best so far.
It was notable how she broke quickly and was up in the van the whole way at the Curragh last time – not something you readily associate with a Ballydoyle runner on debut – and the trainer’s pre-race comments to Fran Berry about this filly mostly being on the bridle at home would suggest that she could take a fair step forward now.
Ylang Ylang will be a short price and the 10th Ballydoyle runner in the last 25 years to rock up here at odds-on (six have won, incidentally to a modest level stakes profit) and it will be interesting to see if she can genuinely advance her Classic claims in this small-field set-up. She is the current 10-1 favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas at Newmarket.
O’Brien has won the Silver Flash 12 times in the past 25 years and the trainer is four from six when saddling just one runner in the last 15 years.
ISLANDSINTHESTREAM
Ballydoyle is the first place to start here, with Aidan O’Brien landing the Tyros in eight of the last nine years and, since 1997, the stable first-string winning nearly 50% of the time.
However, first choice Mountain Bear doesn’t have the typical profile for the stable here on this first try at seven furlongs (Ballydoyle just two from 16 with such runners and only two more placed) and maybe maybe Islandsinthestream can give the favourite something to think about for Aidan’s son Joseph.
The younger trainer doesn’t have many first-time out winners at the Curragh (just 7 from 111 so far) yet this Wootton Bassett colt came from last to first in what looked a dash for the line to strike on debut last time, beating a well-backed favourite who had recently gone well in a barrier trial. Islandsinthstream should improve now as the stable’s runners typically do, but he also showed obvious greenness near the finish at the Curragh and he could take a nice step forward now despite this rise in class.
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton sang it well and hopefully there’s a decent chance that Islandsinthestream can turn into a pretty nice one in time.
LORD MASSUSUS
Trainer: John Joseph Murphy Race: Romanised Minstrel Stakes
He's never run at Leopardstown before – which I always think is a help here – while he’s managed to snare the widest draw for the second consecutive start, but Lord Manussus looks a bit underestimated all the same at early quotes of 9-1 for this rearranged Group Two prize.
Three-year-olds have a poor record in this race in the last 25 years (just 11% of the total winners from 31% of the total runners) but the younger generation comprise over half of this field and several of the fancied runners here and Lord Massusus shaped well in one of the principal recent formlines.
Tarawa and Salt Lake City reoppose from the Listed Celebration Stakes at the Curragh last time and Lord Manussus ran a cracker there, breaking well but proving too keen on the outside and then being dropped back to a disadvantageous position towards the rear. Despite early keenness, he ran to the line very strongly and he can reverse form with Tarawa now, while he appeals as having both the tactical speed and stamina to genuinely figure over this seven-furlong trip.
WALTHAM
This Roaring Lion colt looks exciting and he can confirm the impression on his second start over course and distance.
He dropped out of the stalls on debut last time but travelled particularly sweetly and, after the field stacked up towards the end of the back straight, he made ground on the run for home really smoothly despite running into a notably quickening pace. The five immediately behind him at the finish all had previous racecourse experience, too.
Such a performance seems more notable than usual given the indifferent form of the excellent Ger Lyons stable this Irish Flat season (Waltham the opening first-time out winner for Lyons this term and just one of three from 40 runners so far) and there is surely plenty more to come from this three-year-old, even in a good race in which all but one of the eight runners have won on their last two starts.
Waltham is out of a half-sister to St Leger winner Brian Boru and connections could be eyeing some big staying prizes, with the Listed Vinnie Roe Stakes back at Leopardstown next month a potential springboard to bigger targets if all goes to plan here.
