IT was a case of deja vu at Galway on Tuesday evening. The black and red silks of the Dooley brothers of Manchester were all over Ballybrit. First there was the hat-trick seeking Saltonstall, then there was Current Option and then there was Sirjack Thomas, the least fancied, but the one who flew home to give his owners and Ado McGuinness a third win in a row in the race.

Tomorrow both Current Option and Sirjack Thomas go for the Irish Stallion Farms Ahonoora Handicap (2:35) and will bid to make it a unique double-double for the owners and trainer, and make it five wins in the last six renewals of the two shorter distance feature flat contests at Galway’s Summer Festival.

It would add to an already pretty remarkable performance from the Dublin-based trainer who has clearly maximised the potential of said three horses, who all arrived to his yard with plenty of form already in their books when under the care of other trainers.

McGuinness, who has extra fire power for the race with the Shamrock Thoroughbreds-owned pair Laugh A Minute and Spanish Tenor, has also maximised the Galway factor. Simply, when you have a horse who goes well at Galway, you really should train him for Galway, with the prize money and the occasion, albeit only a fraction of what it should be this year, and that is clearly what he has done.

The Colm Quinn BMW Mile to Ahonoora Handicap double is an extremely difficult task, given the fiercely competitive nature of both handicaps and extra emphasis on luck.

That said Brian Ellison’s dual Ahonoora winners Baraweez and Dream Walker hit the frame in the Mile on both years they went on to take the Sunday feature, as did Ahonoora winners Pintura in 2012 and Amourallis in 2004.

So that puts a bit of perspective around the task for Sirjack Thomas tomorrow, when he’ll carry a 7lb penalty, though that still leaves him 3lb well in on his revised mark of 100.

History

When you concentrate solely on the seven-furlong feature, history is more in the favour of Current Option given the aforementioned Ellison pair were back-to-back winners in recent years.

Last year’s winner ran a very similar style race to the one he ran in last year’s Colm Quinn, and ought to be much better suited now coming down to seven furlongs, the trip over which all five of his Irish wins has come over. He also has a plum draw in stall one.

The correlation between the Connacht Hotel Amateur Riders Handicap and today’s 12-furlong Galway Shopping Centre Handicap (4:20, usually the Guinness Handicap) is often much stronger, with Whiskey Sour completing the double only four years back. However, somewhat surprisingly, no horse from Monday’s feature is among the 18 runners in today’s.

There still is a well handicapped horse there in Iowa, whose fourth in the Listed Her Majesty’s Plate at Down Royal last Friday has him 6lb well in today, as this race was an early closer.

Menuisier taking cautious approach with Wonderful Tonight

DAVID Menuisier left it late to scratch Wonderful Tonight from last Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes on account of the quick ground but he runs his star filly in the Group 2 Lillie Langtry Stakes (3:05) at Goodwood today.

The daughter of Le Harve is at her best on soft ground conditions, as she showed with a brilliant win in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and for much of the week, the plan looked to have come together nicely with Goodwood often doused in rain.

However the ground is drying out again and that factor, coupled with the trainer’s respect of the eight rivals in today’s one-mile-six-furlong race, has led him to approach cautiously, despite her short price (4/5 yesterday evening).

“The opposition obviously is not the same as the King George, but they have to be respected,” Menuisier said.

“I haven’t gone into great detail as to the horses left in the race – but there’s a three-year-old carrying next to no weight (Aidan O’Brien’s Divinely), which is something you can’t discard. She’s the favourite and she should be, but we’re not going there thinking she’s a sure thing.

“Goodwood is not a track where you want to be tanking too much, especially over a mile-six. There’s no certainty in life, apart from deaths and taxes – and that applies to any race.”

On the ground, the Sussex trainer added: “Obviously we’re still hoping for some rain to keep it on the slow side.

“Good ground would be okay – and if we don’t get any more rain I think that’s what it will be. I just know that on quicker ground she can’t reach the levels she does on soft, so then it is a question of opposition. On quicker ground she may not run up to (her rating of) 117.”