THE Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby festival showcased the world class talent of Ryan Moore.

Nobody needs to be reminded of how good he is at any track anywhere in the world and I am always told that he gets to ride the best horses so of course he looks good. That misses the point though, because when it comes to pace judgement and tactical acumen, there is plenty of room for error which could lead to defeat and Ryan rarely makes a mistake.

At the Curragh last weekend, Ryan was cognisant of the need to be on the pace, a tactic which historically has been the way to ride the track and a tailwind up the home straight further enhanced that point.

With that in mind, he rode five winners over the two weekend days and made the running on all of them.

This did not happen by accident as evidenced by the Race IQ break speed data which tells us how quickly a horse reaches 20mph in comparison to all other horses in the race.

It is an interesting metric which tells us about a horse’s ability to get into stride quickly and gives us an indication of a jockey’s positional intentions. The numbers shown below indicate that Ryan Moore’s intentions were very clear on his five winners.

Break speed - 0-20mph data

Dorset: 2.78s (1st)

Beautify: 2.81s (4th)

Whirl: 2.61s (1st)

Skukuza: 2.69s (3rd)

Lambourn: 2.46s (1st)

It should be noted that even though Beautify and Skukuza were not the fastest to reach 20mph, Ryan still had them in the lead after a furlong.

All five of these winners can be acclaimed as being the best horses in their respective races once the result is known, but they became the best because Ryan Moore gave them the best chance of winning, by ensuring that they had a positional advantage over their rivals from the start.

Of course, the start does not tell the full story; it is one factor involved in winning a race but as we delve a little deeper Ryan Moore got all the other factors right.

Dorset

Dorset had shaped well in defeat behind his stable companion Amadeus Mozart on his debut and went one better in the Barronstown Stud Irish EBF Maiden displaying a fine turn of foot.

The key data point is that the first four furlongs of this seven-furlong contest were steadily run, each slower than the Race IQ par for a seven-furlong race at the Curragh and consequently this turned into a test of final three-furlong speed.

Dorset was well placed in the lead; but made the most of his positional advantage with a sharp turn of foot. He recorded 10.75s (rated as fast compared to par) in the penultimate furlong and a rapid 11.26s (very fast compared to par) in the final furlong.

This contributed to a high Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP) of 109.64%. Dorset was able to save energy early in the race for this fast finish, but nonetheless his turn of foot was very impressive and is indicative of his raw talent.

Lot of promise

Al Haarith in third place shaped with a lot of promise having blown the start, he was the slowest horse in the race to reach 20mph (3.78s). This left him at a positional disadvantage given the pace of the race and he had to make his move early than the winner just to try and get into contention.

He was the fastest horse in the race through the fourth furlong (11.51s) and the fifth furlong (11.20s) this surge took him from 11th place to fifth and he maintained his speed all the way to the line but faced an impossible chance trying to catch Dorset whose sub-11.00s penultimate furlong made him impossible to catch.

Al Haarith will take a good deal of beating next time.

LAMBOURN looked to be a strong stayer at a mile and a half when winning the Derby and more than confirmed that impression in winning the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

He did not get the uncontested lead that he did at Epsom and had to dig deep to see off stable companion Serious Contender on ground that was fast enough for him.

The early pace was strong and thereafter there was no pause for breath, turning the race into an attritional test of stamina.

The first four furlongs of the race established the tone. Lambourn attending the pace and running faster than par through the second third and fourth furlong.

Lambourn early pace

F1: 13.91s (Par)

F2: 11.35s (Very Fast)

F3: 11.80s (Fast)

F4: 12.12s (Fast)

The pace settled down after this first half mile but was still even and strong for the next five furlongs. Lambourn was pushed along four furlongs out but kept responding to grind out success.

Given the strong pace, he finished relatively tired and slowly with his final two furlongs rated as very slow against par at 11.85s and 12.96s, which contributed to a sub-par FSP of 101.22% but that was good enough to see off Serious Contender with Lazy Griff (3rd) the only horse to finish relatively well. His final furlong of 12.51s being the fastest final furlong in the race.

This was a true test of stamina and was made such by Ryan Moore who was aware of Lambourn’s main asset which is his stamina allied to a tremendously game and willing attitude.

He looks tailormade for the St Leger where the extra distance and likely easier ground will play to his strengths. The same can be said of Lazy Griff who has now placed in two Derbys and is crying out for further.

THE Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes (Fillies and Mares’ Group) was dubbed as a match between Whirl and Kalpana and that is what unfolded with Whirl staying on too strongly for Kalpana who found the concession of 12lb to her younger rival too big a mountain to climb.

The tactical conundrum for Ryan Moore was that he faced a filly who has a good turn of foot, and he had to go fast enough early in the race to sap the finish out of Kalpana without doing too much on his filly. He achieved this by carving out even fractions from the front, not too fast to leave his horse vulnerable later and not too slow to allow Kalpana to save energy for a late sprint.

Nine of the 10 furlongs are rated as being par as against the Race IQ par numbers with F8 of 11.43s rated as Fast. This even gallop is reflected in an FSP of 107.56% close to the expectation for a 10-furlong race at the Curragh on good ground which is 106.39%.

Kalpana raced close to the pace and was marginally quicker than Whirl through F8 and F9 but did not see the race out as well as Whirl who dug deep in the final furlong.

Final Furlong Splits.

Whirl: 12.24s (Par)

Kalpana: 12.44s (Slow)

This was a masterclass from the front on a progressive filly who is now prominent at the head of the market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.