OTHERS can give their verdicts on the reincarnation of the Curragh as a sporting venue for the 21st century, but there should be no complaints about the quality of the two classics run there last weekend.

Not only did the Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas and the same sponsor’s Irish 1000 Guineas serve up emphatic and high-class winners, they will have pleased the clock-watchers as essentially fair contests in which few excuses are necessary.

The colts were up first, with the winner of the Newmarket version, Magna Grecia, locking horns with the long-time ante-post favourite for that race, Too Darn Hot, each going off at 6/4.

In the event, they were both eclipsed by one they had beaten at two years, in Phoenix Of Spain, who scored in such style that he looks to have leap-frogged to the top of the division.

Phoenix Of Spain’s overall time was more than 0.5s quicker than that recorded by the older filly Beshaayir in the following Group 2 and was the best part of 2.0s quicker than fellow three-year-old Karasi in the concluding handicap.

He achieved the feat by racing up with a reasonable pace – reaching three furlongs out 0.5s behind the stronger pace set by Beshaayir – and saw things out well with a 34.85s closing sectional.

It all goes towards a 124 basic timefigure which gets nudged up 1lb as a result of a 103.5% finishing speed: there are likely to be few better three-year-old miling performances in Europe this year.

Too Darn Hot looked a danger two furlongs out but was soon blown away.

I have him running to 116 here, compared to 119 at York just nine days earlier, though I have felt for a while now that his Dewhurst win was a bit over-rated (including by me at the time).

Decrypt (115) ran a belter in third, while Skardu (114) was 3lbs below his current Newmarket figure, though that race is under review. A bigger disappointment was Magna Grecia (109), who was probably not himself in fifth, for whatever reason.

The fact that Hermosa was about 1.5s quicker than Phoenix Of Spain (and the same quicker than Aussie Valentine on the same card) in winning the fillies’ classic 24 hours later has a lot to do with even quicker conditions that day, but there should be no doubting that Hermosa is high-class herself.

Making plenty of use of Hermosa seems to work well at a mile, and she matched good early fractions with a swift 34.17s for the concluding three furlong, seeing off Pretty Pollyanna (who might not quite have stayed but who ran to 113 all the same) with ease.

It adds up to a 123 timefigure (edged up to 124 due to a 104.1% finishing speed), which is well above average for a race which had been won by fillies as good as Alpha Centauri and Winter in the previous two years.

It will surely take a very good one of her own sex to beat Hermosa, and the allowance she would get off the boys should make them look to their laurels also.