Should the Tattersalls Gold Cup switch from Irish 1000 Guineas day?

THIS season the rejigging of the stakes race programme worked out seamlessly and races that found themselves in unusual slots worked well.

By way of example the Athasi Stakes, traditionally an Irish 1000 Guineas trial run on the May Bank Holiday weekend, found itself switched to Naas last Sunday and attracted a competitive 15-runner field.

Perhaps the most interesting scheduling change of the entire season came when the Tattersalls Gold Cup found itself taking place on the last Sunday in July as opposed to Irish 1000 Guineas day.

Once again the race attracted a small field although the form couldn’t have worked out much better with victory going to the subsequent Irish Champion Stakes heroine Magical. Back in second was the subsequent Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet with Search For A Song taking third ahead of her Irish St Leger triumph. Armory finished fourth ahead of an autumn that yielded a Royal Whip Stakes success, an Irish Champion Stakes third and a second in the Cox Plate.

The structure of the European pattern may not allow such a switch to become permanent. Perhaps it is felt that the Tattersalls Gold Cup belong in its traditional slot. Nonetheless the upheaval brought about by the ongoing pandemic has led to some races taking place in slots that might actually be more advantageous than the ones they traditionally occupy.

The Tattersalls Gold Cup might be a case in point. The date it ran this year left it nicely placed between the Eclipse Stakes and the Juddmonte International and in a normal year it might have acted as an alluring target for overseas contestants.