STORM Betty did her best to derail the last weekend’s racing, causing abandonments at Tramore and Cork (partially), though the Curragh copped a rare bit of a weather luck in avoiding the worst of it, something they deserved after the Oaks weekend washout.

That meant decent ground for their two-day trials card for Irish Champions Festival, the two juvenile Group 2s over seven furlongs on Saturday leading into top level contests over the same track and trip next month particularly interesting.

Henry Longfellow won the Futurity in decent if not spectacular style, a few of his rivals travelling better, but the way he found more when the runner-up came at him a furlong from home was taking.

Aidan O’Brien stated afterwards the winner would go for the Dewhurst rather than the National Stakes on his next start which seems to represent a change in MO for Ballydoyle with these two races, allowing that they have the obvious horse for the Curragh race in City Of Troy.

O’Brien might be taking the view that the Futurity is a little too close to the National Stakes and while Churchill won both back in 2016, his last five winners of the trial have been beaten in the Group 1, although some of those ran into Godolphin buzzsaws like Pinatubo and Native Trail.

Similar approach

He took a similar approach to the Debutante with Ylang Ylang, seemingly their best seven-furlong filly and heading straight to the Moyglare Stud Stakes, though the recent runnings of this trial have been a better predictor for the Group 1.

Since 2010, both Maybe and Skitter Scatter won both races, while seven fillies that were beaten in the Debutante came out on top in Moyglare.

In her absence, Ylang Ylang’s form was boosted via Vespertilio who had finished second to her in the Silver Flash at Leopardstown. Maybe the soft going on that occasion was more in favour of Vespertilio than the Ballydoyle filly, but sectional times suggested the runner-up should have finished closer, a view that Billy Lee seemed to concur with judged on Willie McCreery’s post-race comment on Saturday.

The form of this race can be picked at – the favourite Pearls And Rubies was lame post-race and maidens filled the first three places – but the time compared well with Henry Longfellow (0.06 seconds slower while carrying 3lb less) and the visual impression was striking as she was travelling all over her rivals from halfway and it looked a matter of how far from the two-furlong pole.

Off the pace

Vespertilio was a rare winner from off the pace at recent Curragh meetings – though the track was much less pace-favouring this weekend than of late – and might deserve another mark up as this performance was coming amidst a broadly disappointing season for her trainer.

Perhaps this will be the kickstart of a better second half for McCreery, who has a long-standing affinity with training fillies and mares, and the rematch with Ylang Ylang is no formality.

Watchful eye on Weld’s runners and rider

THE state of Dermot Weld’s team had been a topic in this column prior to Galway, with the thesis being that the trainer was having a better season than the basic numbers suggested, things not really falling his way.

Heading to Ballybrit, his record was 13 winners as against 23 seconds, but he had a good week in the west with three winners and most of his runners going well, while there has been a rebalancing of the winner/runner-up ratio since then with eight winners to five seconds.

He has introduced some talented maidens in that span, not least Sumiha at the Curragh on Saturday, that filly doing well to come from off the steady pace and showing a sharp turn of foot, her final three-furlong split only surpassed by the winner of the five-furlong sprint handicap elsewhere on the card.

It seems doubtful that the runner-up ran to her mark of 98 but that one did get the run of the race, sitting close to the leader, while Chris Hayes never asked his mount for everything.

Star performer

Shamida was the star Weld performer over the weekend as she won the Irish St Leger Trial, doing well as a three-year-old filly against older geldings, especially as she had sweated up and raced keen, holding off a strong stayer late on.

The role of Hayes in this recent turnaround should not be underplayed. I have recently been reading Pat Smullen’s memoir ‘Champion’ and one is left in little doubt that Weld has exacting standards for his jockeys.

Smullen spoke of only really becoming comfortable in his role as stable jockey at Rosewell in later years, and that the degree of comfort is clear in that he calls the trainer Dermot throughout his narrative!

I have never heard Hayes refer to his employer as anything other than ‘The Boss’ but Weld has been notably complimentary in his comments about the rider of late, so this could be a partnership that will continue to grow.

All credit to Coleman and O’Callaghan

THERE are no prizes for guessing which Irish trainer has won the most races in Britain this flat turf season – he resides in Ballydoyle and has 14 winners at the time at the time of writing – but readers might be surprised that next best is Kevin Coleman with five winners from nine runners.

The jewel in the Coleman crown has undoubtedly been Derry Lad, a gelding that looked no more than a mid-grade handicapper at the start of the season but has risen from 68 to 83 over recent months. In that time, he won two races in the Skybet Summer Series and picked up over £35,000 in prize money in the process, no doubt adding to his trainer’s profile along the way.

Derry Lad is owned by the aptly-named Dreamers Alliance Syndicate as they have been living the dream of late; they are like the punter who backed a horse for Cheltenham at big prices in November and followed him through the winter as he kept winning, before finishing up at the Festival as a short-priced favourite.

Their five-year-old was unable to land the £100,000 bonus for winning three races in that series at Sandown on Sunday evening, the race perhaps coming too soon after his previous start, but to even get into such a position was a fine achievement by all.

O’Callaghan’s travels

Regarding creative campaigning in Britain of late, Michael O’Callaghan has not been lacking in imagination with his placing of Night Sparkle this summer.

A 32,0000gns purchase at the Tattersalls December Mares Sales, she won a maiden hurdle at Punchestown in May before winning three on the flat, the last two coming on her travels at Newbury and Newmarket, the most recent win last Saturday.

Those two wins in England returned £51,000 in prize money and came in races confined to fillies and mares; there just aren’t confined races of that value available in Ireland over her trip and to get that sort of return, the filly would need to win a competitive premier handicap.

Instead, she had to beat fields of seven and 11 in those two races, rising from a mark of 80 when first joining O’Callaghan and now likely to be rated in the low 100s.

Her sole future entry is in the Irish Cesarewitch, but connections will have the option of getting even more creative from here as stakes races could well be on the cards, with something like the Park Hill a possibility.