THE Group 1s from Irish Champions Festival were covered off here last week, but there were 11 shoulder races at the meeting, all of them interesting, and there were several horses that caught the eye with a view to running back again this autumn.

Hopefully, they will be a price too as I have gone for ones that finished outside the frame.

Diamond Necklace was the obvious eye-catcher from the Ingabelle as she made the big move from the middle of a spread-out field to catch a couple ridden more forward but the fourth Killashee Warrior took the eye too and completed the final furlong only marginally slower than the winner.

The Hartys’ runner had no winning chance from her position at the back of the field, held up in her run early in the straight too, and should be hard to beat back in a normal maiden.

I Am Superman is at risk of becoming a personal cliff horse, but he did shape better than his ninth in the Sovereign Path and his mark continues to drop.

Having raced wide, his rider’s decision to go inside rather than stay outside after the turn-in was a double negative as he met trouble and raced on the worst of the ground, before finishing off well.

As mentioned above, the outside was the place to be at Leopardstown on Saturday for most races, the Solonaway especially so as the first three were the widest throughout. The Johnny Murtagh-trained winner Alakazi is a progressive sort that is learning from racing, but his stablemate Chicago Critic showed more than his seventh suggested.

He made a mid-race move that came in the hot part of the race per the internal sectionals while he also finished down the inner as no other route was available to him in the straight.

At the Curragh on the Sunday, the opening Joe McGrath Handicap saw a mass migration to the near side rail which proved counterproductive, as many that raced there met trouble, the winner Tango Flare getting a clearer path up the centre.

Plenty would have went closer with a clear run, perhaps most notably Sparkling Sea, but she has started to hold her head awkwardly this season and more interesting is Jon Riggens. He looks in fine form now and would surely have placed but for meeting traffic while he was also racing from 8lbs out of the handicap.

This is his time of the year, and he will be fresher than many he will face as he started back later in the season.

Port Ferdinand (grey) and Ronan Whelan - won in good style at Navan despite things not going his way \ Healy Racing

THE all-juvenile card at Naas in September has been around since 2018, and can produce a decent type, not least last year when Cercene won at the meeting, while other classy sorts like Carla Ridge, Serious Contender and Reyenzi also ran.

If there is a top prospect from this year, perhaps it will prove Port Ferdinand for Aidan O’Brien.

It is hard to gauge the worth of his win in the closing maiden because it was a field of debutants, but he won in good style despite things not going his way.

After breaking well, he was taken back into a wide position and from there had nothing to lead him into the race, but he made up his ground well amidst greenness. The Johnny Murtagh-trained third Sindagan also showed plenty. Having been near last turning in, he made continued headway from rear despite meeting traffic.

Synners Kid flashed ability on his first maiden run before showing little on two further qualifying runs but was a different proposition switched to nurseries for the first time. Coming from rear and needing to wait for a run, the body language of his rider suggested he had lots in hand. He should be well up to winning another nursery.

Near side favoured

As can be the case at Naas on slower ground, the near side is favoured in sprints and that was the way of it in the opening six-furlong maiden with the first three home drawn 14, 13 and 9.

The fourth, Quinta Girl, was drawn 6, and had to make her challenge a long way off the rail but nonetheless finished strongly. Her previous runs came on decent ground, but she took a jump forward here for a slow surface and could be in for a profitable autumn.

A final performance of note was Alphecca in the seven-furlong auction maiden. Both the winner and runner-up raced prominently but Alphecca came from further back and met trouble over two furlongs from home while making ground up the unfavoured inner was also against her.

DATA is a part of every sport now, racing included, though there are times when all the numbers can feel confusing, even overwhelming.

There are two recent ways of presenting this information that stand out as being both useful and easy to grasp for punters on Irish racing, however.

The IHRB website has taken over from the HRI Racing Admin page as the go-to for ground updates and their offering in this area, available at www.ihrb.ie/ground-reports/, is much improved with daily posts on ground changes and weather.

For instance, ahead of the Blenheim Stakes card at Fairyhouse last Monday, there were morning updates every day from the previous Wednesday and combining that with racecourse specific forecasts on Met.ie allows punters to make a decent guess at what the ground may be, freak weather aside.

Sectional times have been around a long time now, and the idea of finishing speed percentage helps understand them as it allows us to rate how fast the closing part of the race was relative to the overall pace of the race.

It can miss what happens before that closing part of the race, however, and the furlong-by-furlong heatmaps now available on the results section for many Irish tracks of the Racing TV website do a better job of this.

Clear context in pace

By adding colour – red for fast, blue for slow – to raw furlong-by-furlong splits, clear context is given, and it is easy to judge when the pace was at its hottest.

A more even gallop might have helped her win by further.

For instance, during the Solonaway Stakes at Leopardstown, there was a fast section from furlongs three to five, and horses making ground at this stage likely paid for it later, such as Chicago Critic mentioned elsewhere in this article.

The Matron Stakes featured a strong early pace which suited a stayer at the mile trip like Fallen Angel and was against sharper types like Vera’s Secret while the Moyglare had an interesting pace profile.

After two red early furlongs as Suzie Songs and Pivotal Attack made the running, the three Ballydoyle runners parked in front before a quick finish.

That fast-slow-fast profile is a little unusual, and it is hard to know who it suited, but Precise was further back than the two stablemates she beat and would look a miler already, so a more even gallop might have helped her win by further.