PREMATURE equine retirements were all too prevalent in the last week, with those of Alpha Centauri and Saxon Warrior particularly keenly felt. The pair featured at Leopardstown on the first day of Irish Champions Weekend.

While Saxon Warrior ran right up to his best in being beaten a neck by old foe Roaring Lion in the Irish Champions Stakes, Alpha Centauri was a long way below hers when defeated by Laurens in the Matron.

Neither race was well-run, with Roaring Lion (108 timefigure boosted to 125 on sectionals) doing especially well to run down the more prominently-ridden Saxon Warrior (107 timefigure, 118 on sectionals).

Laurens got the run of things from the front in the Matron but showed typical tenacity to run a 103 timefigure (106 on sectionals). Alpha Centauri’s base figure of 100 goes up to 107 on sectionals, but her Royal Ascot effort was on a different plane altogether, worth an eye-watering 131.

The Roaring Lion of recent starts has a prodigious turn of foot, and he showed it here again with a 22.4s last two furlongs (11.15s followed by 11.25s) to make up about three lengths on Saxon Warrior.

It is also intriguing to consider how Roaring Lion gets the job done in striding terms: his stride length here was shorter than the national average but his stride turnover was much higher (at 2.48 strides a second) than usually seen other than in out-and-out sprinters.

I have little doubt that he would be effective at a mile in the top company given the chance.

Laurens’ figures are different. Her last two furlongs at Leopardstown went by in 23.4s, with a stride that was longer than average throughout the closing stages but a stride frequency which never went above 2.30 per second. It is probably no coincidence that she has done well ridden from the front.

Incidentally, there was some speculation about the state of the Leopardstown surface: I made it nearer “good to firm” than good on times but suspect that two such high-profile injuries were just unfortunate coincidences.

There were other good wins over the two days from Rostropovich (106 timefigure, 109 on sectionals) in a fast early/slow late Paddy’s Rewards Club Stakes at Leopardstown, I Can Fly (111 on overall time and sectionals) in a Boomerang Stakes on the same course in which – pardon the pun – the leaders came back, Eziyra (110 timefigure, 112 on sectionals) in the Blandford Stakes at the Curragh and Havana Grey (115 on overall time, 116 on sectionals) in a Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes at the Curragh that did not really live up its new Group 1 status.

Sectionals suggest that I Can Fly was inferior to runner-up Kenya (118 sectional rating), who set an overly-strong pace, and only just superior to third-placed Pincheck (111 sectional rating), who carried more weight. They also speak well of Who’s Steph (111 sectional rating), fastest of all late on when runner-up to Eziyra.