IT is a quirk of the Killarney July meeting that the most interesting race for future reference seems to have become the median sires race for juveniles, recent winners including Luxembourg and Lambourn, and this year’s winner A Boy Named Susie looked another good prospect.

Donnacha O’Brien’s sole entry in the National Stakes, he was keen early and travelled all over his rivals, quickening up late to win with loads in hand despite conceding weight and experience.

The time of this race was notably slow compared to the four other mile races on the card and A Boy Named Susie should be suited by dropping down in trip, his trainer bullish on him afterwards.

O’Brien has no problem debuting good horses at Killarney, winning with the likes of Piz Badile in the past, and his overall record here is excellent with eight winners from 19 runners for a level-stakes profit of 11.66 points, something to bear in mind for the August meeting and again next May and July.

Red Letter was the classiest flat runner of the meeting, and she got back on the winning track to land the Cairn Rouge Stakes, with the runner-up Fiery Lucy making her work hard. The Cromwell filly has been unfortunate to win just one race in her career, but this was a fine effort on ground softer than ideal.

Family in form

Joseph O’Brien had a flat treble on the opening day of the meeting and followed it up with a National Hunt double last Thursday, a touch unlucky for it not to be four-timer as Duke Silver and Shaboozee went close on the same card.

It helped that stable jockey J.J. Slevin was wise to the ground being better out wide, as he had been at the May meeting, and Shaboozee looks one to bear in mind.

He made a mistake at the first which caused Slevin to lose an iron which in turn led his mount to be keen and move to the lead. It took time for Shaboozee to settle thereafter but, having been headed after a slight mistake three out, he rallied again late in the manner of one that would have been better with a lead until late.

TAKING the starting price of the favourite as a gauge, this year’s Irish Oaks was the least competitive classic run in Ireland since Order Of St George got beaten at 1/7 in the 2016 Irish Leger. Only the Irish Derbys of Australia and Camelot coming close in the last 15 years.

Minnie Hauk returned at 2/11 last Saturday, and the race turned out to be closer than anticipated with the pace playing a big part in that. As seems to be the case more often these days, the riders went hard enough early to secure position and then the handbrakes went on in the middle part of the race before a fast finish.

Minnie Hauk, for instance, put in five consecutive furlongs of over 13 seconds based on CourseTrack data through furlongs four to nine, before her final three furlongs of 11.64, 10.90 and 11.84 seconds.

That sort of gallop masked her superiority and kept inferior rivals close and there was a moment early in the straight when runner-up Wemightakedlongway looked like she could win as she was travelling best though Minnie Hauk never traded bigger than 2/5 in-running.

The pace suited the eventual second more than the winner though it looked all against the third Island Hopping who made the running.

That filly is a strong stayer and hasn’t yet got a true test this season despite having five runs; slower ground in the autumn could see her to better effect.

Unusual

Perhaps the standout visual performance on the card came from True Love in the Railway Stakes as she beat her male rivals by five lengths, quickening up sharply in the penultimate furlong that took her just 10.78 seconds, Aidan O’Brien commenting on her speed afterwards.

She was the first filly to win this race in over 30 years but only two other fillies had tried since 2008, the old position of this race over Derby weekend meaning there was little point in a filly going for it as there was a like-for-like alternative confined to females at the same meeting.

It was unusual for Ballydoyle to run a filly against colts in a race like this; going back to 2010, I could find only 29 occasions when Aidan O’Brien ran a filly in a juvenile group race against males in Britain and Ireland (four of them won) and 22 of those runners were in Group 3s.

The clear conclusion to draw is that True Love is very good but perhaps also that Ballydoyle are a little thinner than they might like in the six-furlong division for colts aside from Gstaad, setbacks having left other bright hopes on the sideline.

Group 1 hopeful

Elsewhere on the card, Arizona Blaze showed admirable versatility to drop back from a stiff six furlongs at Ascot to win the Sapphire Stakes, only needing hand riding to beat a pair of British rivals who may not have been at their best, Mgheera coming off a break and Rumstar an inconsistent type.

The Amo Racing three-year-old looks to have as a good a chance as any of winning a Group 1 sprint before the end of the season in Britain and Ireland in what has been an open year. So far in 2025, there have been 17 group sprints for three-year-olds and older with 16 individual winners.

Sapphire Stakes third Songhai probably isn’t up to that level, but she should be able to win a listed race at least and shaped well here, slow from the stalls and caught out on the wing but travelling as well as any and finishing off well. She only started her career back in February so there should be more to come.

RACING at the Curragh on Sunday was more low-key though there were good winning performances in the group races from One Look and Diego Velazquez along with a few eye-catching efforts elsewhere.

The opening juvenile maiden was won by Sugar Island and positions remained quite static throughout with the one exception being the fifth-placed Green Interlude who was the only one to make up ground from rear.

A Debutante Stakes entry, she was slowly away but travelled well and made smooth headway from last, the Dark Angel filly looking a sharp type in a field were plenty will be better over further.

Beechwood made a belated but positive start to 2025 when fourth behind her stablemate One Look in the Meadow Court Stakes. She had looked well-suited to going forward when winning the Oyster Stakes impressively last September but raced wide in mid-division here and this run should bring her on with a view to going back up in trip, her future entries over 12 furlongs and further.

The five-furlong handicap won by Cuban Grey was unusual in that the runners drawn low dominated, the first four home in stalls 3, 5, 4 and 2. One hard luck story among the higher numbers was Billie Be Quick who travelled well in rear but got no run until the race was over and is much better than this.

Her stablemate Winston Junior narrowly went down to Light As Air in the following maiden but not before travelling better than that one and responding well to pressure late. He is unlikely to be a maiden for much longer though the handicap route might be worth exploring too.