OF all the potential Irish Champions Festival trials run at the Curragh during August, the two that make the most sense are the Futurity and the Debutante Stakes, leading naturally onto the National and Moyglare Stakes three weeks later over the same course and distance.

Since 1997, the Futurity has produced 10 winners of the National from 54 runners, twice as many as the next best, the Phoenix Stakes with five, while the Debutante does even better. Seventeen Moyglare winners have emerged from that race from 85 runners in the same period, a remarkable number.

It is not always the winner of the trial that comes out on top in the Group 1, but it is hard to see any other outcome this year based on a pair of dominant successes for Constitution River and Composing.

They were races run in contrasting styles, the early pace steady before a late sprint in the Futurity. Wayne Lordan was left alone in front on Constitution River and controlled the race but he is a likeable if hard to assess type.

Gone the wrong way

The Galway maiden he won had no depth and the form hasn’t worked out while an obvious danger here, A Boy Named Susie, looked to have gone the wrong way temperamentally, his ordinary run here foretold by the market.

The gallop in the Debutante was truer as the leader got to the three furlong point 3.29 seconds ahead of the colts in the earlier race, Suzie Songs keen while setting the pace but lasting the trip out well in line with her breeding.

Perhaps she will improve a little for a 56-day break, but Composing was a comfortable winner and like Constitution River, she does things right.

One concern with her is faster ground, her pedigree packed with soft ground types and the rain that fell through the card was likely a help.

If the dangers to Constitution River and Composing at the Irish Champions Festival come not from behind, then they could be elsewhere in the same yard, a couple of potential rivals on their travels this past weekend.

Gstaad got beaten in the Morny last Sunday but was entitled to need the run after a 68-day break, while Precise won the Prestige at Goodwood and is improving at the right time.

NAAS and its bias towards the near side has been a repeated topic in this column throughout the flat season and it continues to be a good punting angle, Genesis a notable winner to emerge from the August Bank Holiday card, winning the Mourne Handicap at Dundalk having raced on the far side that day.

Historically, this bias at Naas is at its strongest on slower ground, but the going was given a good, good-to-firm in places last Sunday, allowing that the track had been watering and there was rain around.

But the racing line itself is important too, the course tweeting on the morning of racing that they were using the ‘same line [as] all summer’, the only surprise being that it took three races for the jockeys to really explore the stands side.

In the third race, a six-furlong juvenile maiden, Fresh Fade was able to rally late up the near side to win and there were a couple of promising efforts from the third Star Of Beauty and the fifth Hooves Your Daddy, both of which raced more towards the middle of the track.

Star Of Beauty was backing up quickly after a promising debut at Dundalk when she ran on well from off the pace on a day when front runners were favoured and though drawn 12 of 13 here made her challenge well of the near rail to be beaten half a length. Stepping up to seven furlongs should bring improvement.

Furthest off the rail

Hooves Your Daddy was drawn worst of all in box one and raced furthest off the near rail, but kept on well without being knocked about, and this was a big step forward on her two previous runs.

The worry with both these eyecatchers is the form of their trainers. Ken Condon is 1/51 with all runners in 2025, Jarlath Fahey is 1/67 in the same period, though both have had two-year-olds run well in recent weeks.

The biggest field of the day was the 21 runners in the five-furlong handicap, and they split into two groups, the first three all coming near side. There was promise in the run of the fifth Ballysax Lil’ Mick, allowing that he is a seven-year-old that took 22 goes to win a race.

That win came prior to this run however, and he seems in good heart just now, showing early pace on the far side before getting run down late. His previous win came at Tipperary and an easier five furlongs suits best.

IRISH racing markets are never dull, and over last weekend there were a couple of ‘out of nowhere’ market moves in good races.

I say ‘out of nowhere’ but what I really mean is that I hadn’t the foresight to spot them beforehand but that doesn’t mean that the market information can’t be used for another day.

Brabizon was backed from an early 12/1 into 16/5 in the Ruby Stakes at Killarney on Friday, a substantial move even allowing for a couple of important Ballydoyle non-runners.

He had Colin Keane up but even so looked up against it in a field where five of his rivals were rated at least 95, his previous win coming in a conditions race, albeit over course and distance.

He managed only fifth but being held up off a slow pace was no good to him and his final furlong was the fastest in the field per Course Track, while challenging out wide on the track was not the advantage it often is on this card.

Working out well

Go Just Do It looked up against it taking on impressive maiden winners in the Futurity having managed just fourth on debut but that was in a race that is working out well and the market spoke positively for him as he was backed from 12s into 9/2.

Like Brabizon, he had little chance from his position in rear of the field off a slow pace but made a good move into the race, nothing faster in furlongs five and six, before flattening out, all this coming amidst greenness, and has plenty of good entries coming up.

The idea of right horse, wrong day, could be at play here and I am open to the belief that horses like this can sometimes offer value next time, after the hype of the initial move and Sujet was a good example at Killarney on the Ruby Stakes card. Having been one of the biggest punts of Galway last month, he could manage only fourth then but bounced back at Killarney on better ground and while he finished up a well-backed 5/4 shot, he had been 3/1 early on.