ROYAL Ascot Trials Day at Naas set up as a Ger Lyons-Aidan O’Brien faceoff, and it was Lyons who came out on top with a treble as O’Brien managed one winner from four odds-on shots, some of which returned with excuses.

Beckman got things going for Lyons, but his significant winners were later on the card, Lady Iman thriving in a busy period to take the Fillies Sprint Stakes, having no issue with carrying her form from the minimum trip up to the stiff six furlongs here.

She travelled strongly as she had done over five furlongs and beat a solid type in Green Sense who seemed to run her race, her task made easier by Simply Astounding disappointing after taking a false step early, the ground perhaps faster than ideal too, her dam Minding one that preferred an ease.

Colin Keane saying afterwards that Lady Iman does not do much in front so there may be more to come and perhaps the Queen Mary rather than the Albany is the ideal Royal Ascot target with how she travels.

Slow burner

Babouche started last season in top form, winning her maiden by five lengths, but she seems have been a slow burner this time, Ger Lyons suggesting ahead of her return at Cork earlier this month that winning would be out of the question.

She managed only fourth then, the sharp five and a half furlongs against her, but put up an improved effort to win the Lacken Stakes under a Group 1 penalty, settling well after some initial keenness and beating Whistlejacket further than she had in last year’s Phoenix Stakes, allowing that one would prefer slower ground.

The Commonwealth Cup is her intended target, and it is a race Irish horses have struggled in; since it was first run in 2015, only one Irish-trained horse has won, though five more have hit the frame.

Lyons himself enjoyed Royal Ascot success with Elletelle in the 2007 Queen Mary but since 2010 has endured frustration at the meeting; his 21 runners in that period have produced three placed horses.

He gave it a good go between 2014 and 2017, having at least three runners in each of those years and 14 in all, but since 2019 has had just one runner at the fixture.

More broadly, there have been 113 Irish-trained winners at Royal Ascot since 2010, 14 of them having their previous start at Naas which comes in third of all Irish tracks.

Leopardstown just ahead with 15, but the daddy of them all is the Curragh with 39 winners, and 35 of those came over the Guineas meeting so the racing this weekend is worth watching for pointers.

One horse that is unlikely to run at the Royal meeting is Bucanero Fuerte as he has no entry, but he looked back to something like his best in winning the Listed Sole Power Sprint Stakes.

More to come

Racing over a five-furlong trip that has long looked sharp for him, he was ridden forward for stamina by David Egan and he was always in command. Given he only returned to Adrian Murray in the last two months after a failed stud career, there could be more to come, especially if campaigned at home.

He has won five of his six starts in Ireland, and it could be worth forgiving the disappointing period he had in the second half of 2024, as he was always playing catch-up after missing the middle part of the season.

The final winner of a blacktype race on Sunday was Copacabana Sands in the Owenstown Stud Stakes and while that was a weak contest for a listed race, no runner rated higher than 98, it was a first stakes winner for Jamie Powell and a clever bit of race-planning by Justin O’Hanlon, a new member of Michael O’Callaghan team.

WE are only approaching the end of May, but it feels as if the summer is a month old, and Ballydoyle already appear to be in mid-summer form.

That the world’s top flat yard is flying on typical flat racing ground approaches ‘Dog bites man’ in obviousness, but even by past standards it has been an excellent few weeks for the operation.

Since Punchestown finished, Aidan O’Brien has won 12 group and listed races in Ireland and Britain, including the vast majority of Derby and Oaks trials, and this is not including a first and third in the Poulains and a close fourth in the Pouliches.

As of last Monday, May 19th, the yard has had more winners in Ireland and Britain during May than any other year since 2018, all figures comparing well with this period in the last five years and there is still over a week left in the month.

As ever, their horses are improving plenty for a run as Table 2 shows.

Strangely, the one set of races where Ballydoyle struggled this month were the Newmarket Guineas. Reading between the lines of Aidan O’Brien’s comments about the races in weeks beforehand, the trainer seemed to have accepted that his horses would not be competitive there and in the end he had just one runner in each race.

Rushed preparation

Expanded was the initial third choice in the 2000 Guineas, The Lion In Winter and later Twain ruled out ahead of the meeting, while Lake Victoria only just made the 1000 Guineas after a rushed preparation.

It was an entirely different story for the French equivalents where O’Brien had three runners in the Poulains, and four in the Pouliches, those that got involved having had prep runs at home in late March.

Against this backdrop, it will be fascinating to see how he attacks the first Irish classics of the season at the Curragh this weekend.

The horses he has run in the Irish 2000 Guineas has been a mixed bag in terms of quality in the last decade or so. There have been toppers like Paddington, Churchill and Gleneagles, though other years had more forgettable types.

In the Irish 1000 Guineas, there has been a more consistent spread of quality. O’Brien has won the five out of the last 11 years but even in the years he failed to win, fillies like Opera Singer, Tuesday, Minding and Found all took part.