LAST Saturday’s Phoenix Stakes was the seventh Group 1 of the domestic flat season, and in a competitive year Ger Lyons became the sixth individual trainer to win a top-level race with Babouche showing the same qualities she had to land the Anglesey on her previous start.

Beating the colts for the second time, she again travelled strongly and battled well late, beating a field that was on the low side by Phoenix Stakes standards while facing four rivals, but the lack of runners did not mean a lack of pace.

The front-runners in the Group 1 got to halfway 0.72 seconds ahead of the leaders in the earlier Group 3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes that was full of hardened types, and while the older horses clawed that back in the second half to finish 0.17 seconds ahead of Babouche in the end, the time comparison reflects very well on the juvenile filly, Timeform giving her a lofty timefigure of 112.

Babouche is a full-sister to Zarinsk for the same connections but unlike that one who preferred a slow surface, seems particularly at home on fast ground; there were a number of non-runners for Saturday’s card due to the going and this was true summer flat ground.

Totally comfortable

She might also be faster than Zarinsk who stretched out well to a mile, Babouche looking totally comfortable at six furlongs for the moment, and while her only entries for now are over seven in the Debutante and the Moyglare, the Cheveley Park is a much more likely target per her trainer.

Her immediate victim was the odds-on favourite Whistlejacket who may have been softened up by racing in the lead with Arizona Blaze, both of them having raced over five furlongs recently, while he also gave the impression slower ground might suit.

He hung a little late on here, though not as markedly as at Newmarket on his previous start, while it might also be worth bearing in mind that he seemed not to be the initial Ballydoyle first string for this race.

Fairy Godmother was mentioned for the Phoenix and the Prix Morny but had a small setback after Royal Ascot before Whistlejacket moved up the pecking order which might suggest two things: Fairy Godmother is a good filly (duh!) but also that the Aidan O’Brien juvenile colts around sprint trips may be weaker than usual.

O’Brien is not typically one for running fillies in the Phoenix Stakes (just five such runners since 2011, none sent off shorter than 5/1) as it is a stallion making race.

Interesting juveniles

The Phoenix was not the only interesting juvenile race on Saturday, the opening three contests all offering features of note.

Delacroix had things his own way in front in the opening maiden over seven furlongs, though would prefer a stiffer test as was dropping down in distance, but his stablemate Acapulco Bay shaped at least as well in second place, coming from rear and having to make up his ground alone in the centre of the track, running on strongly under hands and heels.

Ides Of March had appeared stretched by the seven furlongs on his two previous starts but put up a much-improved effort dropped to six to win the second maiden, Ryan Moore going forward and the horse always in command.

Six-furlong maidens at this time of the year are often weaker than those over longer but even so this was a good performance backed up by a strong closing sectional. Ides Of March was quicker over the final three furlongs than all but four horses on the card, each of those running in the five furlong sprint later on the card.

Fast closer

Falling Snow was another to post quite a fast-closing split in the conditions race for two-year-old fillies and she showed a good attitude to narrowly beat Ballet Slippers who had the benefit of racecourse experience and the rail throughout.

Ballet Slippers might do better on slower ground, but even so, this was a fine official debut from the winner (who had won a barrier trial previously), the pair pulling a long way clear of the third in a sustained battle in the final furlong.

Time for Irish racing to take back more summer Sundays?

THE Phoenix Stakes card started a run of four consecutive August Saturday cards at the Curragh and there are some very good races still to come, among them the Royal Whip, the Futurity/Debutante combo and the Irish Cambridgeshire.

I do wonder, however, about the logic of running them on Saturday rather than a Sunday, and if the programming is using the strength of the sport in the best way.

It could be argued that the Phoenix Stakes was hardly going against the best of British racing last Saturday with the Shergar Cup the main meeting, and perhaps the same is true of this Saturday when it is the Great St Wilfrid and Hungerford Stakes that feature in England, but next Saturday is the final day of the Ebor meeting, a much less appealing clash.

The issue might be less one of quality than quantity, anyway. There is a general clutter to Saturday afternoon racing – last Saturday, for instance, had four afternoon meetings in Britain – and the experience for stay-at-home viewers, especially those trying to concentrate on Irish racing, is not a good one.

Furthermore, one has to wonder what sponsors think of their prized supported race getting lost in the Saturday morass.

Sunday has always been the traditional day for Irish racing, and still is in winter when it works very well. But summertime has seen a real shift away from Sunday being the big day, and from the start of June through the middle of September, there are only two really meaningful Sunday cards, the Irish Derby card and the final day of Galway which is typically the weakest of that entire festival.

That is not even to mention the second day of the Irish Oaks meeting clashing with the All-Ireland Hurling Final.

Some of this is to do with blank Sundays to ease the load on stable staff but there is Irish racing every Sunday in August, just not always very good racing, ordinary jumps cards at Downpatrick and Tramore, decent flat meetings at Naas and Tipperary.

It might also be worth considering the impact of other sports, notably the GAA with which racing has a significant overlap.

The GAA has decided to wrap up inter-county competitions by the end of July in recent years, and while that may change, August is something of an ‘open goal’ (pun intended) for racing, especially with soccer in England only getting going around now.

Sundays are quiet, with only GAA club fixtures going on rather than the inter-county behemoths, and it might be time for Irish racing to take back some of those summer Sundays, in August at least.