IN what has, at times, been a confusing flat season, Irish Guineas weekend at the Curragh helped to clarify some matters and added to the confusion in others.

The favourites were turned over in the big races but there should be no doubting that both Awtaad (Irish 2000) and Jet Setting (Irish 1000) took major steps forward in victory.

Awtaad looks a superior horse to the Newmarket winner Galileo Gold, whom he had back in second here, though Jet Setting beat the Newmarket winner Minding sufficiently narrowly, and in such circumstances, that a rematch could plausibly go either way.

Conditions made time comparisons somewhat tricky, with both rain and drying conditions at various stages. The fillies’ race was much faster than the colts’ race the day before but that applies to a few other races on the Sunday also.

I usually toe the Timeform company line in these matters but am going to break ranks where the timefigures of Awtaad and Galileo Gold are concerned.

Sectionals show that the Irish 2000 was run in an efficient manner, with a last three furlongs of 38.8s indicating a finishing speed compared to average race speed of 101.5%, which is almost bang on par.

It is stretching credibility to think that a horse of Awtaad’s undoubted quality could run only a 95 timefigure, which is the Timeform verdict, in such circumstances. It seems more likely that conditions were slowest of all late on the Saturday card, for whatever reason.

GOOD WINNER

My own sectionally-adjusted figure for Awtaad is 120 - that of a good but not exceptional winner of this race.

Galileo Gold had little room over two furlongs out but was making no impression late on, once more shaping like a specialist miler. His wind-assisted 123 timefigure at Newmarket may be a few pounds too high.

Jet Setting and Minding pulled a long way clear in the Irish 1000, and their 116 timefigures are much more what one would expect. That said, sectionals show that both fillies could, in theory, run faster still.

Their times from three furlongs out were between two and three seconds quicker than those of the principals in the colts’ race, and Minding, who started a couple of lengths down, actually ran the fastest closing sectional at a mile or more at the course this year up until that point.

Minding additionally was reported to have banged her head leaving the stalls. She might have lost the race but she lost no caste in defeat and remains comfortably the most accomplished filly in the field for the Oaks at Epsom.