THE August Summer Saturday meetings at the Curragh are classy cards in their own right, but timing can lead to them having a trial feel as horses, especially older horses, are building towards the Irish Champions Festival and some other autumn features.

That was the case this past Saturday in the two Group 3s, both run at slow places with lowly-rated horses involved at the finish, a 93-rated horse winning the Irish St. Leger Trial and an 80 horse, sent off 300/1, finishing second in the Royal Whip. The Royal Whip is a traditional restarting point for Ballydoyle runners and so it proved with Los Angeles this year, Aidan O’Brien at pains to say the run was needed beforehand, though surprisingly the market was positive about his chances.

Mark this one down for the trainer comments.

Los Angeles could only manage fourth though this was the just the first of two planned prep runs for his main target the Arc though he did have a hard race last time at Royal Ascot and I didn’t like the way he carried himself in the closing stages here.

Aidan O’Brien has no peers in getting one back to form, however.

Ballydoyle seemed to have little interest in making this a test, habitual front runner Rock Of Cashel breaking slowly but Wayne Lordan showed no urgency in sending him on and it was left to two former O’Brien stable jockeys, Johnny Murtagh and Seamie Heffernan, to choreograph the race for Zahrann.

Impressive

The pacesetting Tangapour took a convenient drift off the rail in the straight but even so Zahrann was impressive, coming off a break since Royal Ascot like Los Angeles and Murtagh often leaves a bit to work on ahead of autumn targets.

His previous starts suggested to me at least that he was a strong-staying 12-furlong horse, but his trainer saw something else, and he was proved correct while the comparison to Sinndar afterwards was surprising but also encouraging. A typical Irish Champion Stakes tends to be strongly run and should suit him well.

Little substance

The form of the Irish St. Leger Trial looks to have little substance.

Favourite Puppet Master did things wrong in the Irish Derby, sweating up and dwelling in the stalls, and appeared to have learned nothing from that as he did the same here while second favourite Absurde again failed to finish his race off after travelling well.

That took 108- and 105-rated horses out of the equation and Leinster only had to beat Dallas Star who would prefer slower ground.

Leinster did it well, travelling strongly and looking suited by the drop back from the two miles he ran over at Royal Ascot, but it is hard to view a 13lbs hike to 106 as justified.

ANOTHER feature of the card at the Curragh on Saturday was the flip-flopping draw biases on the sprint track.

Low numbers had been favoured a week earlier when racing on the near side track, but the pace of the race seemed more important this time as the action moved over to the Curragh side track.

The opening juvenile maiden was dominated by high numbers, 19 running and the first four home drawn 12, 16, 20 and 15. The fifth was Treasured Royal in stall two and she shaped well, strong in the market on debut for Gavin Cromwell despite being a cheap buy.

Cromwell has done well with his two-year-old debutantes this season, but this Nando Parrado filly lacked the sharpness of some of those or at least circumstances went against her.

She went right out of stalls and got no cover, racing keenly as a result but she was still travelling as well as anything to the two-furlong pole before weakening late. A sharper test might suit better.

Winner impressive

That said, the high-drawn winner Mushaffar was impressive. Well-backed on the show, he came from a long way back to win and beat experienced rivals and while this was only a median sires’ race, he could go on to better things.

In the nursery, the race developed up the middle of the track, the winner Sir Alfie keen and taking other fancied ones along with him whereas those racing near side got in each other’s ways.

That was the case with the two Donnacha O’Brien runners, Monte Vista an obvious one that didn’t have things go her way while stablemate Simmering Seas at least as interesting.

She raced in rear close to the near rail but got held up in her run to the point where she had no chance of winning before running on well late.

We were back to the near side being favoured in the closing sprint handicap, the first three all closer to the stands than most, but the fifth home Irish Rumour shaped well. After dwelling at the stalls, she got hung out in the middle of the track and did well to finish as close as she did.

DUNDALK had one of its rare summer afternoon meetings last Friday, and the surface looked stamina-sapping as it was difficult to come from off the pace in the shorter races at least, the first four winners making all and the fifth close up too.

With that in mind, a trio of horses caught the eye in coming from behind. Genesis dominated the Mourne Handicap from the start, the runner-up Valiant Force also going forward, but the third Collective Power came from much further back.

He was slowest away but came home better than anything, his final furlong the fastest in the field, and has not had things go his way lately, meeting trouble on recent starts. That has caused his rating to drop below his last two winning marks and while he can frustrate with luck in running, he is well-treated now, especially with the regular Dundalk meetings starting soon, five of his eight wins coming there.

Bounced back

Bishopton bounced back to form returned to the all-weather to win the apprentice maiden over seven furlongs but the third Daler gave himself no chance in being slow from the stalls and had an impossible task as the field got spread out from early in the race.

He did really well to finish third, faster than the impressive winner in each of the last four furlongs, and while there seems to be a stalls issue with him, he should be able to pick up a maiden before the end of the year, most likely at this venue.

Imaginary Money was given little chance in betting at 100/1 in the juvenile maiden, but he outran those odds making his debut for Henry de Bromhead despite looking badly in need of the experience.

He raced in rear and didn’t travel at all well but the penny was dropping late and he finished off well into fourth in a race run in a good time, doing best of the debutants against rivals with solid form. He looks well bought for €10,000.