BY and large, barrier trials ought to be viewed as a positive addition to the Irish flat racing scene in recent years, for a number of reasons.
Primarily run with the intention of getting young Irish-trained stock sold abroad while still unraced under rules, there have been many horses successfully traded from these mock races, while they also serve an educational purpose for others.
Top yards are often involved too. Across the 10 trials run at Naas on Monday of last week, Joseph O’Brien declared 11 runners, Jessica Harrington had nine, Donnacha O’Brien declared eight, while Johnny Murtagh, Gavin Cromwell, Michael O’Callaghan, Adrian Murray, Henry de Bromhead and Gordon Elliott were among others to get involved.
Another positive that has arrived from the barrier trial rollout comes for punters when assessing maidens - particularly those run in these weeks immediately after a batch of trials. Being able to watch a horse who is officially a rules newcomer be put through their paces in a trial can have major benefits for those weighing up maiden runners’ credentials.
That is if punters can actually identify the horses who have had a run in a trial.
The issue has been that the trials are not officially recognised as form in the major racing databases or on racecards, so racegoers can be none the wiser to a barrier trial run. It is surely a key piece of information to know when judging a newcomer - whether they won their trial or finished out with the washing in one.
Yes, replays and results of the trials can officially be found on the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing website, but how many casual racing fans will be looking up that resource to cross-check maiden runners with barrier trial results? That’s not practical at all.
Coverage need
To their credit, IrishRacing.com have been to the fore in typically adding the barrier trial form to their horse profiles, with links to the YouTube replays of the trials available on site. However, they are very much the outlier in this regard and it was well over a week before they uploaded the latest batch of Naas results to horse profiles.
The results were not online by the time an example popped up on Wednesday this week at the Curragh in a seven-furlong juvenile maiden that has a rich history of producing top horses. One of the leading market fancies at 4/1, Flanker Jet, appeared on all major databases in Britain and Ireland as a complete newcomer.
It was the same story in the racecard at the Curragh and on all prominent websites. Preview comments across the board never made reference to any previous experience for the Adrian Murray-trained runner. On paper, the Oasis Dream colt didn’t have anything like as obvious a profile as the likes of Ballydoyle’s Wootton Bassett newcomers Amadeus Mozart and Dorset, yet he was priced up as a serious challenger.
They key piece of information that was missing? Flanker Jet had finished first past the post in a Naas barrier trial the previous week. It was actually the fastest of the four six-furlong mock races run on the day. Barring the average racegoer had been scouring the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing website or attended the Naas trials on the day, it’s highly unlikely they’d have had any clue about the trial run.
For viewers at home, to his credit, Racing TV’s Kevin O’Ryan did make reference to it in the pre-race build-up, but the system should be so much more comprehensive than having to rely on someone spotting a trial run themselves. Especially when there were 85 horses in action during the latest trials at Naas.
It may take a little refining to detail it on a horse’s profile as a run separate to standard form, but if the same systems can differentiate between point-to-point form and rules form for National Hunt horses, why can’t the same can be replicated in this space? We all know those two National Hunt entities are treated differently in terms of maiden status on the track and so on.
It was noted in the press briefing ahead of last year’s barrier trials that the trials at that point had delivered three individual Group 1 winners, including a classic winner, while graduates have also been successful at Royal Ascot, the Dubai World Cup programme and even the Cheltenham Festival. These are often becoming trials of consequence for the rest of the formbook, so it’s only right we have some mention of it factored in.
As it turns out, Flanker Jet finished a solid fourth at the Curragh, but it feels amateurish that a key factor about him was not documented in the racecards.
THE irony won’t be lost on anyone if Godolphin’s megastar stallion, Dubawi, is to finally sire his first winner of the Epsom Derby courtesy of a Coolmore-owned colt in Delacroix. Especially in a classic where his main market rival, Ruling Court, is a Godolphin-owned son of Coolmore’s Justify. This isn’t the usual dynamic for either camp.
Stamina is the big talking point when it comes to the leading contenders in today’s Betfred-backed feature at Epsom, with both of the big ante-post guns untried at the distance.
Any number of metrics can be tried to gauge whether a horse may or may not stay the mile and a half at Epsom, but backers of Delacroix will have to be comfortable with Dubawi’s poor Derby record - compared to the sire’s otherwise exceptional standards.
A triple Group 1-winning miler himself, Dubawi had a crack at the Epsom Derby back in 2005 when failing to stay in third behind Motivator.
Shorter distance strength
He has since had nine of his sons try to capture the same prize and the best that any of them have fared is fifth: Benbatl, who proved better at shorter distances afterwards, finished three and a half lengths off Wings Of Eagles when fifth in 2017, Mickdaam was beaten 13 lengths in the same position behind Camelot in 2012, while Red Galileo’s fifth in 2014 saw him finish nine and a half lengths adrift of Australia. While it’s fair to say that Dubawi hasn’t had a chance as strong on paper before as Delacroix, he’s still had single-figure priced representatives fail to get involved in the Derby like Dubai Thunder (11th in 2017), One Ruler (sixth in 2021) and 6/1 shot Ancient Wisdom (8th in 2024).
It might be getting late in the day too for the £350,000 stallion to plunder the Epsom highlight given he’s now a 23-year-old. If there is some encouragement about his chances of making the breakthrough, though, it could be found in last year’s Oaks.
Dubawi had been 0-8 in the Epsom fillies’ classic heading into last year’s race, with six of those representatives failing to even reach the frame. That all changed 12 months ago when Godolphin’s super sire produced the first two home from just two runners, as Ezeliya powered clear to beat Dance Sequence.
Full of intrigue
Perseverance paid off in 2024 for the fillies. Might it all come right in 2025 when it comes to the colts?
It’s just one of several interesting subplots to a Derby full of intrigue.
And even if Godolphin manage to strike with 2000 Guineas hero Ruling Court, it would mean Justify is unbeaten as a sire in the Derby, following on from the tremendous City Of Troy last year. Now that would be quite the marketing statement for the Coolmore America powerhouse in 2026.