PICK of the four Group 1s at the Curragh was the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes, a race that had gone to two very high-quality Godolphin juveniles in Quorto and Pinatubo in the last two years and for which the same connections’ Master Of The Seas was one of the joint-favourites this year.

Even without the withdrawn Battleground, the National Stakes looked as good a two-year-old race as there has been all season, but unlike the preceding Moyglare Stud Stakes over the same distance it was spoilt by a modest gallop with the first half mile taking around two seconds longer to run resulting in a winning timefigure of just 89.