A TOTAL of 55 two-year-olds and 18 three-year-olds, all unraced, ran in 10 barrier trials at Dundalk Stadium last Monday.

First staged in 2018, the trials are run by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, with the support of the Irish EBF and Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. Staged over five, six, and seven furlongs, they are ostensibly aimed at attracting overseas buyers. However, many of last year’s graduates ended up racing in Ireland before being sold on.

Jeremy Greene of ITM played a major role in launching the initiative. He said: “Two dates staged at Dundalk in July and September 2020 attracted 143 entries from 40 different stables. Some 25 individual winners have emerged from those occasions, most notably Group 1 National Stakes winner Thunder Moon, dual Group 3 scorer A Case Of You and Cathkin Peak, a listed winner in California.

“Many more winners from previous dates have surfaced, including in Britain and Hong Kong, and connections from as far afield as Australia have bought into unraced graduates that have performed well in the trials.”

All of last Monday’s trials can be viewed on the ITM YouTube channel and the results are on the ITM website. It is intended that further trials will take place on Wednesday, August 18th with a September date yet to be confirmed.

Information

Email: barriertrials@itm.ie

Tel: Jeremy Greene 087 1121625

Web: Search YouTube.com for ‘Irish Thoroughbred Marketing’

Irish EBF Barrier Trials – the ones to watch

Trial 1: 5f. 2yo. 5 ran.

Possibly not great depth to this one. John Feane’s ANATOLI (colt by Aclaim) wore down Kieran Cotter’s DUN NA SEAD (filly by Starspangledbanner). The runner-up was green and not abused.

Trial 2: 6f. 2yo. 7 ran.

ALMANERA (colt by Almanzor) was the first of many eyecatchers on the day trained by Joseph O’Brien. Shane Crosse’s mount may not have had much to beat but did it fairly smoothly.

Trial 3. 6f. 2yo. 8 ran.

The experts say you shouldn’t read too much into the recorded times at these trials but, for the record, Joseph O’Brien’s PENNINE HILLS (filly by Kodiac) put up the fastest six-furlong time of the day in this heat, winning by six lengths.

Trial 4: 6f. 2yo. 8 ran.

The Joseph O’Brien-trained pair SKATINGONICE (colt by No Nay Never) and VOLAROSSA (filly by Footstepsinthesand) crossed the line virtually together. We don’t know what weights they carried but first impressions were that the colt was given an easier time and has a lot of improvement in him.

Trial 5: 6f. 3yo. 5 ran.

Joseph O’Brien’s RIVER EDEN (filly by Invincible Spirit) won very cosily under Declan McDonogh. Henry de Bromhead’s runner-up WREN’S BREATH (filly by Elzaam) did plenty wrong under Wayne Lordan but definitely has ability.

Trial 6: 7f. 2yo. 8 ran.

A strong trial on paper, with representatives from the Murtagh, Weld, Harrington and Lavery yards taking on three from Joseph O’Brien’s team. AMORTENTIA (colt by Caravaggio) won nicely enough but what about that effort from Cormac Farrell’s runner-up KAWAZAKI (colt by Holy Roman Emperor). If this was under rules, Rory Cleary would have got six months! It was an absolutely perfect advertisement for the horse and one imagines the agents have been on from Santa Anita to Sha Tin.

Trial 7: 7f. 2yo. 9 ran.

Again, this had runners from the Murtagh, Weld, Harrington and Lavery yards, and just the four representatives from Carriganog! There were some fancy pedigrees in there too. The trial was slowly-run and they all finished in a bunch. Any of them could turn out above average, but two who did travel notably well were Joseph O’Brien’s LIVIA CELESTE (filly by Galileo) and Sheila Lavery’s GLOBAL ENERGY (colt by Showcasing).

Trial 8: 7f. 2yo. 10 ran.

The biggest field of the day and two pulled clear. They were Jessica Harrington’s MAGICAL LAGOON (filly by Galileo) and Joseph O’Brien’s VOICE OF ANGELS (filly by Dark Angel).

Trial 9: 7f. 3yo. 6 ran.

Joseph O’Brien provided the first two home – COLLINS STREET (colt by Camelot) and CLASSIC ARCHI (gelding by Archipenko). Both look middle-distance horses on pedigree so it’s hard to know what to make of this piece of work. If one of them wins a maiden, the other one should too!

Trial 10: 7f. 3yo. 7 ran.

Three of the field were trained by Joseph O’Brien, including the narrow winner, ROLLET (colt by Kingman). Michael Halford’s runner-up JE T’AI PORTE (filly by Footstepsinthesand) went close, and the third-placed PLEZANTLYSURPRISED (gelding by Twilight Son) will have pleased trainer Jessica Magnier with his performance.