THE Irish Derby was one of just two races at a distance beyond a mile at the Curragh on Saturday, with the other started by flag, making comparisons tricky. There were four such races on Sunday, with the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes won by Nezwaah far and away the quickest of the three at 10 furlongs.

I differ from Timeform – who have all the longer-distance races slower than might be expected – and personally have Nezwaah worth a timefigure of 115, a respectable but by no means outstanding figure for a Group 1 winner.

The closing sectionals were again wind-assisted and fast, but, unlike the Irish Derby, it very much looked as if the best horse won in this instance.

The Roger Varian-trained filly has been hiding her light under a bushel somewhat, with just a couple of listed wins to her name before this, but looks a genuinely high-class performer now.

The Group 3 International Stakes earlier on the card was won by Johannes Vermeer in an overall time more than 4.0s slower than Nezwaah went on to record, with his closing sectional (32.91s) the fastest at the course by a horse racing at further than five furlongs in the last couple of years.

Johannes Vermeer flew a bit too high when unplaced in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on his previous two starts, but he has a prodigious turn of foot judged on this effort and is bred to be at least as much at home at 12 furlongs.

It might have looked as if Rekindling was showing quite a turn of foot in landing the Curragh Cup later on the card, but he ran the last three furlongs fully 2.67s (over 15 lengths) slower than Johannes Vermeer had done, and it was more a case of runner-up Wicklow Brave slowing once allowance has been made for the effect of the wind.

Nonetheless, this was a decent time performance by Rekindling, worth 112 in my book (Timeform went eight lower), while Wicklow Brave lost no caste in defeat given how things panned out.