DERMOT Weld knows a ‘Cup’ horse when he sees one. Shamida had already been identified as one after her Group 3 Irish St Leger Trial win at the Curragh on Sunday, and at Leopardstown on Thursday, along came Harbour Wind (9/2) for owners Moyglare Stud.

The son of Nathaniel and nephew of the same trainer’s classy stayer Forgotten Rules has been brought along slowly this term but he showed a bit of class with his seven-length success at Navan previously, and kicked on from that again when sweeping to the front inside the two-furlong marker to score the one-mile-six-furlong Listed Aer Lingus College Football Classic Vinnie Roe Stakes in ready style.

“It’s a race I like to win, commemorating Vinnie Roe and Pat Smullen is in my mind always,” said Weld afterwards. “He’s still a big immature horse, coming forward. He’s next year’s horse and he’ll be trained accordingly.

“I’ll speak with his owner Eva Maria Haefner and we’ll look at whether we run him again this year and if we do run him once again this year where it will be. He’ll probably have one more run. We’ll go through the options for him.”

“I do see him as a Cup horse. That was a good renewal of that race, plenty of strength, and of course he liked the better ground. Chris gave him a lovely ride and he did it well. There is lots to look forward to.”

Fratas fever

The closing race of the summer series chain of fixtures at Leopardstown went to Michael Mulvany’s Fratas (7/1), who had just too much for Adelaise in the one-mile Dublin To Bahrain Fillies & Mares Handicap.

The Raymond McMahon-owned filly raced prominently and although only hitting the front as late as the one-furlong pole, she looked likely to be caught by Adelaise, who had gathered up significant momentum for her challenge. To her credit, the winner fought hard to see off the favourite by a neck.

This was her second win in a row and her third in six runs, so it has been a fine season for her, and there may be more to come still.

“She did it the hard way today because she was up there the whole way. She’s tough and seems to be improving,” said Mulvany. “She’s entered in a rated race at Cork next Wednesday and we’ll see how she comes out of this and talk to the owners.

“She’s done everything right since we got her and hopefully it’s onwards and upwards. I think she gets further but she’s very versatile. A mile here is a stiff mile and I’d be hoping she stays a bit further.”

THERE was a wall of horses in front of Dance Night Andday (14/1) as the field for the Whistlin’ Donkeys Playing Live After Racing Handicap rolled into the straight but the gaps were golden for Colin Keane, and Ross O’Sullivan’s filly came through to score in impressive fashion from Alabama Pearl.

This was just the Peter Jones-owned filly’s fifth start - and second in a handicap - and she may well kick on now, having scored here off a mark of 67.

“She had run well in her maidens and obviously the last day it’s very hard for a three-year-old to have their first run in a handicap at Galway, it’s nearly impossible without experience,” said O’Sullivan. “She had worked well during the week and we were very happy with her, we thought that she’d run a nice race. She had shown a nice level of ability at home.”

For the second Thursday evening meeting at Leopardstown this summer, Ado McGuinness’ Hightimeyouwon (7/1) rattled home on the quick ground to score a seven-furlong handicap, this time in the hands of Cian MacRedmond in the Bulmers Live At Leopardstown Handicap.

The former Dermot Weld inmate was held up off a solid pace set by three different runners. It was all change in the final furlong as the Shamrock Thoroughbreds-owned gelding hit the front in a line of four, holding just enough to deny his stablemate Half Nutz.

“Cian gave him a great ride,” McGuinness said. “He was going to sit handier but they went quick and he sat off them. He’s riding with great confidence, things are going well for him, and he just let the race happen.

“The key to this horse is ground, he loves top of the ground. He’ll probably sneak into a big handicap now but we didn’t enter him up at the Irish Champions Festival

“He’ll try the racing league over in England, we might go over there with him one of the days. There will be plenty for him.”

SEAMIE Heffernan is hard to pass when he gets to control things from the front and that proved the case for all his rivals in the opening two contests.

He completed his double on Natalia Lupini’s Making Time (11/4 joint favourite) in the seven-furlong Irish EBF Auction Series Maiden. The Gary Devlin, Trevor Dalzell and Paul Healtey-owned filly seemed to travel sweetly with the lead and held a one-length advantage going into the straight. She drifted a little off the rail, and looked to have provided a gap for Ciao For Now and Shane Foley, but they never seemed to get enough momentum to go through and Making Time stuck her neck out to win a shade cosily.

The trainer’s partner Craig Bryson said: “She’s tough and straightforward. Seamie rode her to be positive today and she stayed well to the line. There should be a little bit more to come from her hopefully.

“We’ll take her home and see how she is and we might look at a nursery. If we could get a bit of blacktype in too, we’ll try. She probably wants fast ground.”

Earlier, Content (6/4 favourite) got off the mark at the third time of asking on what was a fine day for Aidan O’Brien.

The daughter of Galileo and Mecca’s Angel never really looked like she’d be passed in the straight, maintaining a healthy advantage over Apricot Ice, who came through for second.

“She ran a lovely race here the first day and she was too lit up at Ascot and didn’t finish,” said Heffernan. “She’s very honest, all she wants to do is jump and run hard. I was impressed with her and I think she has a lot of strengthening up to do.

Pivotal Revive (2/1) did well to win the one-mile Vital Edge Powered By Plusvital Maiden, firstly getting the better of Highland Rahy and then holding off the late finishing burst of favourite Walsingham.

Jessica Harrington’s three-year-old colt had finished second on all three of his career starts prior to this, so he had good form in the book, but he also may have reacted positively to the application of cheekpieces.

Assistant trainer Kate Harrington reported that he is likely to head to the Tattersalls horses-in-training sale next week.