THE focus of my attention this week is the Irish Derby Festival at the Curragh. The Irish Derby, the Pretty Polly and the Railway Stakes were fascinating contests which produced data that may serve to alter opinions based simply on what the eye can see.

These three races should be seen in the context of the contrasting conditions that they were run in. On Saturday, the Pretty Polly was run on ground officially described as good to yielding and the Irish Derby and Railway Stakes on Sunday were run on ground described as good. The RaceiQ time index scores which look at the times achieved and compares them historically with times achieved on the same ground in the same class of races suggest that there was a marked difference in the going on both days suggesting that it dried out considerably following racing on Saturday.