Performance Review

June 2017

LOVEMENOT gave the yard winner number 17 for the season so far when she was successful at Limerick on Friday night. 

She had been placed on both her starts prior to winning at Limerick and the extra two furlongs distance she encountered there seemed to suit her. I’m delighted with the win and it’s good, and important, to have winners for Godolphin.

The horses have been running well and to have 17 winners at this stage of the season is pleasing but I am always looking to improve. As well as the 17 victories, we also have 52 places, with 15 of them coming in the runner-up position. We need to convert more of those seconds, especially the close ones into wins. A win and place strike rate of 61 per cent is good and at the moment we are fifth in the standings and, while that is a good position, it is the final table that counts. I would love to be in the top five come the end of the season, breaking into that club this year would be a great achievement.

Winner number 17 for 2017, LOVEMENOT

Bloomfield was a very taking winner of her debut at the Curragh on 10 June, winning a mile and a quarter maiden very decisively. I was pleased, not only with the win but also the way she did it, and I am stepping her up in class for the Listed Oaks Trial at Naas on Wednesday 28 June. On her Curragh performance she has to take the next step, which is a blacktype race and she is a very well-bred filly. By Teofilo, Bloomfield races in the colours of her breeder John Connaughton and is a three-parts sister to Group Three winner Prima Luce. I am hopeful she will give a good account of herself at Naas on Wednesday night.

Mauricio was claimed by Dr Newland after winning the mile and a quarter claiming maiden at Roscommon on 12 June and I was pleased that he left the yard on a high note, after achieving his victory. 

Belle Boyd was second in a mile fillies’ maiden at Leopardstown on 15 June to another Godolphin owned filly, Petticoat. That was a good race and the winner looks like a nice filly so Belle Boyd did well. We are hunting for a win with her and she might run in the mile maiden for fillies at Naas on Wednesday 28 June, depending on how she does after her second place effort at Leopardstown.

Covetous ran well to be third on her first start of the year in a ten furlong maiden at Cork on 18 June. I hope that she will improve for the run and I will look for another maiden for her in the next three or four weeks.

Vicky Cristina put in a good performance to finish second in a maiden over seven furlongs at Limerick on 17 June. She will have a break now and come back for a nursery and a bit of ease in the ground.

Seapoint runs in the Racing Again July 4th Handicap over seven furlongs at Gowran on Sunday 25 June and it is her first run for the yard. She is owned by a new syndicate of owners to the yard and hopefully she can run well.

Diarist is also running in a Gowran handicap on Sunday where he steps up in trip to one mile and a bit more than a furlong for his first handicap start. He stayed on into second at the end of his last run at Killarney in the final furlong so the extra distance should suit him and I think he will run well as he will get the ground that he likes.

We could send Aurora Butterfly on her travels as there is a listed race in Carlisle on Wednesday 28 June that might suit her. She has been in good form since her win at Clonmel early in May and there isn’t really a race in Ireland for her right now. She is a homebred filly for Madeline Burns and it would be important to get blacktype with her. 

You have to look at all options when working out race plans for horses and if that means travelling to tracks in England or Scotland for races that suit your horses, then that’s what you have to do. Winners are what matters in this game and if you have to send horses abroad to get that one beside their name, then I do that.

On the same day as Aurora Butterfly could run in Carlisle, Bloomfield will tackle the Listed Oaks Trial at Naas, as I already mentioned. Lustful could make her debut in the two-year-old fillies’ maiden there. She belongs to the Niarchos family and comes from a fantastic family. She is by Maxios, their dual Group One winner and her dam is by Galileo out of their great filly Six Perfections who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2003 so Lustful has a beautiful pedigree.

Cold Springs is entered for the three-year-old fillies’ maiden at Naas. A daughter of Mastercraftsman, she was bred by her owner Thomas Radley who also bred and raced her dam Fontanally Springs. Buttermere might go for the apprentice handicap on the same Naas card with Nathan Crosse claiming ten pounds from her. 

Tipperary on Thursday evening will hopefully see Snowstar break her maiden in the five furlong contest. She has been running well and consistently so far this season with three places from three runs but it would be fantastic if she could finally get her head in front.

I have entered Faraday’s Law, who is a full-sister to Irish 1000 Guineas winner Just The Judge, in the median auction maiden at Tipperary on Thursday. She didn’t seem to get home over a mile and two last time so the drop in trip to half a furlong short of a mile might suit her better.

The Irish Derby Festival starts on Friday night at the Curragh and I think it could be time for some of the two-year-olds to get out and start earning their oats. They have been working well and judging by their performances on the gallops last week, some of them are now ready to run.

Liquid Amber could make her debut in the first race of the Derby meeting, the Heffernan Tyres filles’ maiden over seven furlongs. She is another homebred Niarchos family filly out of Pachattack, who was a listed winner on the turf in England and a Grade Three winner in America, andwas also placed in four Grade One races including the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic behind Royal Delta. Liquid Amber is her second foal, and a daughter of leading American sire Kitten’s Joy.

I am looking at a couple of the other maidens over the weekend for some of the two-year-olds and maybe a couple of the handicaps for the older horses. Bumbasina and Valentana might go for the fillies’ handicap over seven furlongs on Derby Day but Bumbasina is also entered in the Group Three Brownstown Stakes at Fairyhouse four days later.

Patuano and Ostatnia are both entered in the Rockingham on Sunday. Patuano is a fast little filly and she could go for that race but I was disappointed with Ostatnia’s run in Cork the last day as she definitely had her conditions.