THERE may have been three Group 3 races at the Curragh last Saturday, but it was a youngster in the nursery handicap that put in a particularly sensational performance, writes Page Fuller.

Jordi Bear didn’t disgrace himself in his first two maiden starts, so it’s not surprising that he made easy work of his opening mark of 75. However, it’s the fashion he did it in that makes it noteworthy.

His Time Index of 4.7 out of 10 wasn’t anything to write home about, but considering the tempo of the race, it was still a good effort to get so close to Par.

They went quite steadily in the first part, which put the emphasis on speed in the closing stages, and this played into Jordi Bear’s hands perfectly.

Of all of the horses that ran at the Curragh last Saturday, the Top Speed of 42.31 mph that he hit in the penultimate furlong was the quickest.

His final two-furlong time of 22.37 seconds and FSP of 111.5% were also faster than any other horse on the day.

Now, since there were only seven races on the day, you might argue that it isn’t the most significant of statistics. So I dug into our RaceiQ database to see how it stacked up against all of the horses we have sectionals for that have run at the Curragh.

Of the 4,894 horses we have seen running at the Curragh since the start of summer 2023, his final two-furlong time ranks in the top 100 fastest final two furlongs we’ve seen.

The handicapper may have chucked an extra 7lb on his back for the win on Saturday, but the numbers don’t lie. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if he makes easy work of this new mark too.