1. Lyons calls for blacktype prize money boosts

IN the immediate aftermath of My Mate Alfie’s success in the Bold Lad, Ger Lyons took the opportunity to flag up some frustrations held over the differential between prize money often earned at blacktype level versus lower grades.

Earlier this year, the Curragh introduced a €20,000 race value minimum for each of its meetings, including races at the bottom handicap grade of 47-65.

“A little moan,” he said. “The owner informed me during the week that when this horse ran third here the other day [in the Group 3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes], and went up to a rating of 107, he got €1,700 net for the prize money. At the same time, we have races at the Curragh in the 0-65 handicap grade where the winner gets €12,000. That’s just wrong.

“If we’re talking about horses rated 107 - group-level horses - and the owners are walking away and telling me what they’re earning, it matters. We need to correct that. We can’t have good horses not earning money. Otherwise, what’s the point in owners keeping them here in Ireland? It’s just a little one, and if we don’t say it, it’s not going to be corrected.

“This weekend is fantastic but it’s not the norm. Good horses running second and third in these races need to be paid - and definitely getting paid more than 0-65 or 0-70 horses. Rant over.”

2. Hernon’s unorthodox challenge pays dividends

NOT many punters would have been looking to a five-furlong maiden at Moulins last month with a view to finding Irish Champions Festival winners, but it worked a treat for French-based trainer Gavin Hernon with Spirit D’or.

The capable handler, whose origins go back to his family’s Castletown Stud in Co Cork, pulled off quite the touch to land the €250,000 Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes - a race that many feel has not always been overflowing with quality in recent times and is often ripe for overseas runners to plunder.

Hats off to Hernon for exploiting the opportunity, but also to winning jockey Ronan Whelan, who notched a winner on each of the weekend’s cards.

He was seen at his very best on the Ross O’Sullivan-trained Dance Night Andday in the previous afternoon’s €150,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Sovereign Path Handicap. A lucrative weekend’s work.

3. Mixed bag for Ballydoyle juveniles on weekend

AIDAN O’Brien headed into the four blacktype races for two-year-olds at the Irish Champions Festival with runners priced at 4/5 (Bedtime Story), 5/6 (both Delacroix and Henri Matisse) and 9/4 (Bubbling), so a return of one winner – at odds of 11/2 – wasn’t the return many were expecting.

A case could be made that Bubbling might be the most talented runner in Saturday’s Listed Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes, given her pre-race antics and lack of a clear passage, but it’s hard to have as many excuses for Henri Matisse, who showed a quirk or immaturity – or both – in running around close home in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes. He needs to apply himself better in the finish, going forward. Delacroix looked particularly raw in the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes but ultimately didn’t appear to improve as much in terms of professionalism as the winner, Green Impact, from their clash at the same track in a July maiden.

The Moyglare Stud Stakes was a cracker to watch. A combination of keenness and returning lame appeared to be the undoing of Bedtime Story, and she remains a filly of the highest potential when getting her act together in terms of settling.

Stablemate Lake Victoria rates a top-class classic prospect in her own right, though. She possesses an awful lot of quality.