WE seem to have entered one of those phases of the season where Ballydoyle horses seem close to unbeatable and as of close of racing last Tuesday, the yard were 26 winners from 75 runners in Ireland and Britain during August, a strike rate of 34.6%, including four-timers on the first day of the York Ebor meeting and at the Curragh last Saturday.

More than that, it seems there is more to come, as like tickets for major gigs, the Ballydoyle horses are being released in phases; two of their feature race winners at the Curragh the Saturday before last, Continuous and Grosvenor Square, appeal as more backend types and as did their two winners from Leopardstown last Thursday, Chemistry, returning from a 124-day absence, and Platoon, having his first start.

One of the things Aidan O’Brien does well is change, and The Lion In Winter is a case in point. He had looked a top prospect when winning on debut at the Curragh in July, but it was a slight concern that he was stable second string that day (albeit to one that has won easily since) while news that his aim was the Goffs Million via the Acomb was another red flag.

Neither of those races stood out as contests O’Brien would target with a really good horse, the Million is valuable but lacking group status, his 12 runners in the Acomb since 2010 all beaten and only one making the frame, his wins in the race coming back in 1997 and 2000.

But the conditions for the Acomb changed this year which made it more competitive though both O’Brien and Moore commented that the race was part of the education of The Lion In Winter rather than the endgame.

Education

In any case he was able to defeat a deep field, coping fine with turning seven furlongs on just his second start, looking to have learned plenty from debut, and the educational part of running at York is not only the race itself but getting there and handling the unfamiliar surroundings.

O’Brien may have a desire to travel his best young prospects earlier than he did in the past and it was similar with City Of Troy last year, running in the Superlative Stakes at the July Meeting just a fortnight after his maiden win at the Curragh.

Like the Acomb, the Superlative would not be a traditional Ballydoyle target – they won it in 2005 and 2017 but would not have a runner every year and those that did travel would not be their best.

The race fit in well for City Of Troy at the time though and it is not hard to see the reasoning behind getting horses used to travelling as soon as possible, with so many of the big races run outside Ireland, though it is a little disappointing for Irish racegoers hoping to see the best homegrown flat horses run on these shores.

THE strength of the British challenge during the Irish flat season has been a theme in this column all summer but the roles were reversed last week at York when there were seven Irish-trained winners, a figure that stands out in recent times, the best total in the last 15 years otherwise being five in both 2014 and 2019 with the average in that period being 2.8 winners.

Those successes follow on from Irish horses winning the three Group 1s at Epsom, a fine Royal Ascot and an outstanding Glorious Goodwood: the seven winners at the last-named fixture again a massive high in recent years, next best being four in both 2016 and 2020.

None of this is to say that the Irish or British horses are better than each other at the current time but we might be in a strange situation where the strengths of the two horse populations are actually best suited to competing in the best races in the other jurisdiction.

The British are strong over shorter trips, the likes of Mitbaahy, Believing and Poet Master winning group races in Ireland this season while their early three-year-old milers were excellent, both Irish Guineas heading across the water, albeit the winners are on the sidelines at the moment.

Talented fillies

There are some talented older fillies in Britain, not least Pretty Polly winner Bluestocking, whereas in Ireland there is just one such filly or mare rated higher than 110, Jackie Oh who has only raced once this year.

Ireland is strong in the stayers, winning not only the Ebor last week but other valuable races with Extensio and Vauban, while our middle-distance three-year-old crop is a powerful one, notably City Of Troy and Content.

Irish Champions Festival in a couple of weeks will bring some of these form threads together though it seems unlikely to feature City Of Troy at the moment, more’s the pity, but the more suitable races for him and horses like him are held elsewhere, his sole start in Ireland coming on debut.

ONE of the better pieces of tactical riding of the season took place at Naas last Sunday as Shandy under Andrew Slattery won the Ballyogan Stakes at 50/1, one of just two runners in the field to stick to the near side, the other one also an outsider trained by Fozzy Stack.

Stack was keen that his two runners explore the near side, which is often the best part of the track at Naas on slower ground, though based on the earlier races the track looked to be riding even, but with Shandy especially having little chance at the weights being rated just 84, it was a risk well worth taking and one that paid off.

To be fair to the winner, she had done best of the low drawn fillies on her previous start in a similar race at the track when also a big price but the result and that of the later big field sprint handicap (the first seven home all drawn 11 or higher) seemed to confirm a bias even with good in the going description.

The Ballyogan runner-up Firebird thus deserves credit for winning her side easily, impressing with how quickly she put ground between herself and the rest in the final 100 yards, though the seventh Wide With Delight also caught the eye on that side.

Badly chopped off

She was having just her third start and her first since May 6th, travelling as well as any until getting badly chopped off on the rail over a furlong from the line, doing well to keep on as well as she did in the circumstances.

As to the big sprint handicap that followed the Ballyogan, both the Tom McCourt horses Finito Bonito and Only A Star are worth marking up having run well from a low draw, the latter meeting significant trouble, while it is not hard to construct at case that the earlier maiden winner Revoke put up a big performance.

She pulled a long way clear of the rest on her side, winning by nearly five lengths from a trio of rivals with solid form, two of them rated in the mid-80s, while she also posted a fast overall time and is from a yard with excellent depth in this division.