LEOPARDSTOWN had their first summer Thursday meeting last week and it was a low-key affair with neither concerts nor carnivals, but both stakes races were interesting tactically, not least because of the changes made by riders on fancied runners.

One alteration that worked out well was on Tarawa in the Glencairn. She was without a win in eight runs since her juvenile days prior to last Thursday, some of that down to being highly tried, some of it her own making as she seemed not to put it all in.

In almost all of those defeats, she would take a lead, sometimes pressing the pace, more often sitting in mid-division, but Chris Hayes changed it up here, taking the temperature of the race early and deciding the gallop was steady, allowing her to stride on after two furlongs and she never looked like getting caught.

Front-running is a tactic rarely used Hayes or Dermot Weld, but they might have found the key to Tarawa here, and she will continue to be dangerous, particularly at Leopardstown where her form figures read: 1231.

Tactical King George

Things turned out less well for Colin Keane on Keeper’s Heart and Shane Foley on Kinesiology in the King George V Cup, a race that set up as a three-cornered affair with the market leaders priced between 13/8 and 9/4.

Keeper’s Heart had been patently unlucky on his previous start in the Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes at the same track, dropped out in rear and getting no run at any point in the straight, beaten less than two lengths.

The hold-up tactics seemed to suit then, he just got no luck, so it was a surprise to see him ridden just off a front-running outsider last week when stepping up two and a half furlongs in trip, the dam side of his pedigree suggesting the new distance was at best an unknown.

He seemed to over-race a touch with no cover but still travelled best into the straight but had little left in the finish and dropped to third.

Kinesiology, on the other hand, might ideally have wanted to be where Keeper’s Heart was, but instead found himself in rear.

Having broken second, he dropped back through the field, with the possible mitigation that he was finding the ground too quick, and having been last half a mile from home, finished well into second, shaping more of a grinder than a quickener, his trainer saying as much after his recent Cork win when commenting that 12, even 14, furlongs would be his thing.

Perhaps these tactical changes were academic, and Portland would have won anyway, Ryan Moore not all out until very late, but my suspicion is that the jockeys on Keeper’s Heart and Kinesiology may have tried to fix something that wasn’t broken here, and both could do better under different circumstances.

RYAN Moore has spent a chunk of the run up to Royal Ascot riding in Ireland, taking in meetings at the Curragh, Leopardstown and Navan, likely riding work at Ballydoyle in between times to help set the pecking order there ahead of next week.

Moore has ridden four winners for Aidan O’Brien in that time but has also been beaten three times in maidens by stablemates ridden by Wayne Lordan, though Moore will hardly be despondent about that given he will have the option of taking over on all three on their next starts, each of them promising for different reasons.

Both Grateful (Lordan) and Mother Nature (Moore) were coming off setbacks in the 12-furlong maiden at the Curragh last week, but the former returned from a longer absence and was much weaker in the market, yet still managed to win on her first start in nearly 10 months, hardly all out to do so either.

O’Brien commented after the opening juvenile maiden at Leopardstown last Thursday that there was little between Bedtime Story (Lordan) and Giselle (Moore) and the betting moved that way late on, Bedtime Story putting up a notable debut win, looking much the best, and coming from further back than the three she beat, the four of them pulling clear.

Her closing two-furlong split was the fastest on the card, despite her being first time out and not punished late, while Giselle herself is a fine prospect, not helped by hampering that unbalanced her on the turn, picking up some cuts in the process.

The opening juvenile maiden at Navan on Saturday had more quantity than depth but the time, both overall and sectional, compared well with the two handicaps for older horses that followed over the same distance and Celtic Chieftain (Lordan, again) impressed with how he finished to win up the far side with nothing to bring him into the race.

He did best of the first-time starters, the eight to follow him home all having experience, while the runner-up, who had been unlucky in what looked a strong Curragh maiden on debut, gives the form solidity.

THERE will be something for everyone at Royal Ascot next week, races of every shape and make, but for many the central draw of the meeting is the two-year-old races with the Irish and British juveniles clashing for the first time, a smattering of Yankee Doodle Dandy mixed in too.

To this point in the year, the two groups of horses have barely met. Seven Irish two-year-olds have run in Britain so far this year, two winning, though all competed at a lower level, while no British horse has made the journey the other way.

As per, Aidan O’Brien will bring a strong juvenile team to the meeting. Of the 37 juvenile races run in Ireland up to last weekend, O’Brien has won 12 of them, ahead of Joseph O’Brien (four), Jessica Harrington (four) and Ger Lyons (three).

The Ballydoyle two-year-olds have tended to improve a lot for a run this year. O’Brien is 7/23 with his juveniles having their first start in Ireland this year but 5/7 on their second start. Of those seven winners, three came in recent days with only one before May 25th.

That winner was Camille Pissarro at Navan who then got beaten in the Marble Hill, but listening to the trainer in recent interviews, he remains their main Coventry Stakes hope.

He will likely clash with Cowardofthecounty in that race, an impressive winner at the Curragh on testing ground in April, but absent since. That was by design but he did look like one that would benefit from experience then so it will be interesting to see if that catches him out at Ascot.

Of the 84 juveniles races run at Royal Ascot since 2010, Aidan O’Brien has won 17 of them, clear of the next best trainer, Wesley Ward, with six, though some less likely Irish trainers have also gotten in on the act in these races.

Gavin Cromwell is two from two with his juvenile runners at the fixture, and his Mighty Eriu showed up very well against a second time out Ballydoyle horse at the Curragh last Wednesday, travelling powerfully over six furlongs despite racing off the rail, shaping as if a drop in trip would suit.

The Queen Mary could suit her for all it comes up early in her development and perhaps a more obvious potential Irish winner in that race is Make Haste, a filly that connections have already turned down eye-watering sums per her trainer on a recent Luck on Sunday show.