RYAN Moore has been dominant up the Curragh this season with 27 winners from 72 mounts, and his ride to win the Paddy Power Supporting Cancer Trials Irish Cambridgeshire on Wigmore Street might have been best of all.

He could not have arrived much later on the winner who seems to enjoy passing horses more than making the running, but timing was only part of it, his awareness of track bias at least as important if not more so.

Racing at the Curragh took place on the Curragh side track, one of three tracks typically used these days, the one furthest from the stands, and judging on the Cambridgeshire and the closing big field sprint handicap, it looked an advantage to come near side.

A quick glance at the stalls of the first six home – 6, 23, 20, 9, 24, 21 in a field of 24 – might suggest there was no edge, but replay suggests otherwise, a freeze frame at the three-furlong point showing the first six home were the six furthest from the far rail at that point.

The two low drawn horses, Wigmore Street and Coeur d’Or, were ridden by Moore and Chris Hayes, the pair gradually making their way from the far side to the near.

Hayes had pulled off similar tactics on the same horse to win the race from stall one last year.

Deserve credit

Coeur d’Or wasn’t quite well-handicapped enough to bring up back-to-back wins but both riders deserve credit for figuring out the best ground despite that part of the track not having been explored in the five earlier races on the card, with the final six-furlong handicap confirming it was the place to be.

Runners that stayed far side found it tough, some of them possibly going for their races sooner than ideal too, the well-backed favourite, Vera’s Secret, one that did too much, too soon, a drop to seven furlongs having the potential to suit, and the two that did best of those that stayed far side were the seventh Chicago Fireball and the ninth Old Faithful.

The ones that really interest me, however, finished down the field, Soaring Monarch (11th) and Fort Vega (17th), as both met significant trouble, one getting in the other’s way while making their challenge hard against the far rail, shaping as if they had much more to give.

Shaped better

Soaring Monarch had no chance on his first start of year at Galway when held up in a slowly run mile race but shaped much better at a big price in the Guinness Handicap on the Friday of that meeting, looking the winner coming out of the dip only to be stretched by the 12-furlong trip. He is in much better form than his recent figures suggest for his new trainer, will be suited by typical autumn ground and has dropped to close to his last winning mark.

Fort Vega was returning from a 401-day absence here and would ideally have wanted a prep run for a race of this nature, something he would have gotten but for the ground turning fast earlier in the month, but he too looks on a good mark, 1lb lower than when he beat Broadhurst at Naas last May.

DREAMY came into Saturday’s Newtown Anner Stud Stakes with a positive profile and delivered on it with a win; she had been one of just five Aidan O’Brien-trained juvenile fillies to win on debut in 2024 and became the fourth to win at group level subsequently, the others being Truly Enchanting, Bedtime Story and Lake Victoria.

The signs were there in her initial win at Goodwood, that win coming in a high value maiden race, and while the manner of victory here was workmanlike rather than spectacular, it is a way of winning we have seen all season from Ballydoyle winners, briefly looking in trouble entering the closing stages only to pull out more and win with a bit in hand at the line.

She beat the right two here in Fiery Lucy and Alla Stella, her nearest market rivals and both rated 94, the three a long way clear of the fourth, and it was interesting to hear O’Brien comment afterwards that she would not fully grow into her frame until she was a four-year-old.

With that in mind, the trainer suggested that another run this year was possible rather than definite, but it would be unusual for a Ballydoyle filly to have a light campaign if able to run, quite the opposite in fact, the trainer is inclined to keep them busy and she would make plenty of appeal for the Fillies’ Mile if connections were that way inclined.

Flattering growth in flat figures for de Bromhead

IMAGINE yourself a trainer for a moment: would you prefer to take on Willie Mullins or Aidan O’Brien?

Being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea springs to mind, though a simple numerical comparison, based on relative success in Ireland at least, suggests Mullins is the more dominant.

Mullins won 17.2% of all Irish National Hunt races run during the most recent full jumps season in 2023/’24 whereas O’Brien took 9.3% of all Irish flat races during the 2023 campaign, though it is hardly as simple as that. O’Brien is more global in his focus and there are many Irish races he just doesn’t have runners in, nor is he likely to do so in the future, whereas Mullins may have won the British Trainers’ Championship but he did it with a small team.

It is not a choice that needs to be made, but it is interesting to see Henry de Bromhead leaning more towards the flat in recent seasons.

Career best

He has already had 86 runners on the level in Ireland and Britain in 2024 and seems sure to blow through his previous highs in the low 100s this year while his return of 11 winners in this part of the world is a career best.

The number of winners is not as relevant as their quality as they include not only Magical Zoe in the Ebor but also wins in the Victor McCalmont via Empress Of Beauty and a pair of group wins in England for Term Of Endearment.

Nine of the 11 de Bromhead winners were fillies or mares and that doesn’t include Higher Leaves winning a listed race at ParisLongchamp last Sunday, and there might be more success to come judged on the performances of a couple of two-year-olds recently.

Town And Country looked a sprinter with a future when winning at Navan last Thursday, the only horse on the card to dip under 22.0 seconds for the final two furlongs, and that fast sectional looked more indicative of ability than her being a five-furlong type, the stiff track here allowing her to get up late, and if anything six furlongs should suit better. She did well to win here given she came from further back than the two that beat her and was green when asked for effort, not helped by the favourite taking her off a true line in the final furlong.

Town And Country had won a barrier trial earlier in the year and in the most recent batch at Leopardstown her stablemate Minaun View was one of the more impressive winners, making the running and always in control.

Out of Park Express winner and Irish 1000 Guineas third Vote Often, she should be winning her maiden before the end of the year.