EVERY one of the Curragh’s races on Sunday was at a mile or less which compensated in ease of comparison for what it lacked in variety.

The most obvious finding is that the time recorded by three-year-old Speak In Colours in winning the Phoenix Sprint was 1.66s quicker than that achieved by the year younger Advertise in winning the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes. That reflects better on the former than the latter even after maturity is allowed for.

In a wider context, Speak In Colours’ time looks a good one – I made it worth a timefigure of 117 – and is that of a horse capable of being at least competitive at an even higher grade, while splits confirm that Advertise’s race was nearly 3.0s slower to halfway, a dawdle in sprint terms.

The fact that Advertise (97 timefigure here but 112 previously) appeared rather workmanlike can be excused in this instance.

PULLED HARDER

So Perfect and Sergei Prokofiev pulled harder than ideal, but the former (107 on sectionals when beating Skitter Scatter here the time before) still managed to run very well; this is already looking to be quite a good year for two-year-old fillies.

None of the five-furlong races at the Curragh was especially high quality, with winning timefigures of 81 for Mid Winster, 64 for Optionality and 71 for Gopsies Daughter, and Lady Kaya got the run of things to a degree when trotting up in the seven-furlong Loder Irish EBF Fillies Race (84) and Tremendous posted just a respectable time in the concluding mile handicap (82).

There were also Group 3 wins earlier in the week for Eziyra at Leopardstown and Sizzling at Cork – though neither race was well-run (timefigures of 83 and 90 respectively) – and at listed level for Christmas at Tipperary (88 timefigure) and Making Light at Cork (105).

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Zagitova looked a potentially useful juvenile filly when registering a 96 timefigure at Cork on Saturday, with sectionals boosting that to a group-calibre 107.