IRISH sprinting has been in the doldrums so far this decade and, since the start of 2020, just two Irish-trained runners have managed to win a Group 1 sprint for three-year-olds and older in Britain and Ireland, those wins coming via Romantic Proposal and Moss Tucker, neither of which seemed expected given both started at 16/1.

Many Irish listed and group sprints have gone for export in that time, but there were some green shoots at the Curragh over the weekend via My Mate Alfie and Keke.

My Mate Alfie looked to be flat-lining as a mid-90s horse over seven furlongs at the end of last season and the start of this one, but the drop to six furlongs and application of blinkers have brought a chunk of improvement along with consistency, to the point where he is now the highest-rated sprinter in Ireland on 113, 1lb ahead of Moss Tucker.

He won the Bold Lad off 107 at the Irish Champions Festival, becoming just the seventh horse to win an Irish flat handicap off 105 or higher since 2020, The Euphrates another in the Cesarewitch on Sunday, and backed it up in the Renaissance.

Ger Lyons sounds like he has mixed feelings about ‘touring’ with him next season, but he has earned the right to at least take on some of the English sprinters over there.

Keke has a way to go to reach the level of My Mate Alfie, his mark up to 95 after winning the Joe McGrath on Saturday, but his performance had some ‘wow’ visuals, as he relished the drop back to five furlongs.

Eddie Lynam mused that he had won too far on Saturday and Billy Lee, who had him arrive very late on his previous starts, hit the front earlier this time for an impressive response, as he powered clear late, looking a cut above his rivals, with the possible exception of the luckless Greek Flower.

The trainer mentioned other premier handicaps afterwards, but is not beyond the realms to think a Lynam sprinter could keep improving through the grades.

Prize money anomaly

I am not sure what it was, but the Goffs Million on Saturday didn’t seem to land as a race of consequence. Lost in a mass of Racing TV coverage, the Curragh feature was run just five minutes after the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket and, yes, I know there is a full feed from the track online, but it’s not the same as the main channel.

Like the consolation race, the Goffs 500, the field was uncompetitive for the money offered and the finish fought out by two runners from powerhouse yards, two more filling the frame, hardly creates a buzz.

The prize fund here is totally disproportionate to achievement, a 77-rated gelding winning the 500, albeit impressively, though the best horse did win the Million, but the rewards here are out of whack, similar to the Cesarewitch on Sunday.

A few trainers have been voicing their opinion on the state of Irish prize money, notably Ger Lyons on a podcast attached to this publication earlier in the year, and his point about the inconsistent values of different grades of races at the Curragh is a valid one, with the mid-level horses not being rewarded, whatever about minimum prize funds at the bottom level.

The Cesarewitch was worth a total of €600,000 on Sunday, but it is hard to say that it drew a field wildly different to the race before it had such a value, nor is it producing a contest four times as good as something like the Bold Lad or the Northfields, those races worth €150,000.

Even those two contests are at the upper end of all other Irish premier handicaps as part of Irish Champion Festival and winners of more ordinary premier handicaps – if there is such a thing because they are hard to land – might rightly feel aggrieved they weren’t better rewarded, even if the Cesarewitch does have to compete with the likes of the Ebor.

FOLLOWING his win in the Kerry National, Gavin Cromwell described Flooring Porter as a ‘horse of a lifetime’ for both him and his syndicate of owners, and he is spot-on, after nine career wins, two of them at the Cheltenham Festival, another Grade 1 at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting and now a premier handicap chase.

Flooring Porter is a rare talent, being a both mid-160s hurdler and now a 157-rated chaser, but talent was only part of this win; the ride he got from Keith Donoghue a major factor.

Donoghue got his mount away quickly and grabbed the inside, a plus around the tight Listowel chase track, and built the pace gradually; by my hand-timed splits, he was six seconds quicker from the last fence to the first fence second time around than first time around, a major difference that made it difficult for anything to come from off the pace with the lead he had built up.

When his nearest pursuer, The Real Whacker, unseated at the 10th, it was ‘race over’ as the rest of the field had nothing to pull them into contention. While it is tempting to think that Flooring Porter won’t have this element of surprise next time, it is a tactic he has repeatedly pulled off in the past.

The only horse to make any inroads from the back was the runner-up Horantzau D’airy, and he completed the final half-mile chunks faster than anything else in the field, looking to stay this sharp three miles well. Having won just once in 10 hurdle starts for Willie Mullins, he has proved a different proposition as a chaser, putting together six solid efforts in a row.

Of the others, the fourth-placed Churchstonewarrior jumped better than has often been the case for his new yard, while the seventh Fakir d’Oudairies showed some spark remains, running on a little from rear having raced wide, likely to improve for his first run in 234 days, his 2023/’24 season a shortened one.

I would have a slight question mark over the form as a whole, not only because of the impact of the winning ride on the race, but also the marked going change in the hours beforehand. A few in the field were declared on decent ground and would have preferred it stayed that way, with the likes of Busselton, Desertmore House and Chemical Energy not travelling from an early stage.

Individual horses aside, the star of Listowel was Eric McNamara. Having gone upwards of 15 years (the database I use goes back as far as 2008) without more than four winners in a calendar month, he had five in three days, before adding two more on the flat at Down Royal, and they were all at prices too.

Of those winners, Frankendael, who landed the valuable two-mile handicap hurdle on Friday, looked like he should be able to progress again from this.

He impressed with how he travelled through the race to win on handicap debut and beat a pair of rivals that were well-suited by conditions and in form. His new mark of 124 should leave him competitive in other good handicap hurdles with slower ground no issue.