RACING/CURRAGH REPORT:THERE WEREN'T too many ifs or buts floating around the Curragh yesterday after Maybe maintained her brilliant unbeaten record in style in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, unmistakably proving herself the top juvenile filly seen in Europe so far in 2011.
After Joseph O’Brien guided the 8 to 13 favourite to a hugely impressive defeat of Fire Lily and her old rival La Collina, Maybe was slashed to even shorter favouritism for next year’s Guineas.
However, the impression the daughter of Galileo has made in five starts to date means it might not be the most ridiculous clarification ever sought to query whether that Guineas might be of the 2,000 variety.
The view that the two-year-old fillies are better than their male counterparts – in Ireland at any rate – gathered pace when La Collina managed to beat the colts in the Phoenix Stakes and Maybe’s previous form got another boost yesterday when Lightening Pearl won a Group Three by five lengths.
Yesterday’s Moyglare was a sixth for Maybe’s trainer Aidan O’Brien and while the 2010 winner Misty For Me has been the only one to date to graduate to Classic-winning status, even eight months ahead of the Guineas it will be a major disappointment if the filly bred by the Horse Racing Ireland chairman Denis Brosnan doesn’t do the same.
“She’s very uncomplicated, loves her racing, goes her own pace and quickens up. She has the gears,” O’Brien Snr explained simply. “Her form is very solid. Every race she runs in, the form seems to stand. With a filly of that class you would have to think of the Guineas for her as a three-year-old. And a mile should be no problem.”
After last year’s Moyglare, Misty For Me went on to win the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp on Arc day and that race could also be on Maybe’s agenda, although O’Brien didn’t rule out the Fillies Mile in England.
Yesterday’s Group One prize was the second of the season picked up by Joseph O’Brien after his Irish Guineas win on Roderic O’Connor in May.
The strength of Maybe’s form was underlined by Lightening Pearl’s saunter in the Round Tower Stakes and Ger Lyons has some Group One aspirations of his own for his filly.
“There is a big money pot in Redcar but you have to think about going for a Group One so we will look at the Cheveley Park as well, and there’s the race in France too (Boussac.) It’s a beautiful position to be in,” the Co Meath-based trainer said.
“We were beaten by a very, very good horse in the Debutante which suggested we were good enough to win this and the fillies look better than the colts this year,” Lyons added.
“Our filly is not very big in stature but she has a big heart.”
Jessica Harrington has a strong juvenile team of her own but nothing in her yard is progressing faster than the three-year-old filly Bible Belt who was utterly dominant in the Group Three Dance Design Stakes. “Fran (Berry) said when he pulled her out and gave her two slaps, the race was over,” Harrington said. “She probably wants a mile and a quarter so the Blandford Stakes would look an obvious race. That was only her third race of the year so we can go on through the Autumn. She will go on easier ground.”
Cross-channel dominance of the Flying Five sprint continued when Henry Candy’s Amour Propre broke the minute barrier by over a second and a half in beating Sole Power and Roicead under Cork born jockey Dane O’Neill.
“We’ve bumped into some good sprinters along the way and it’s a great bit of training from Mr Candy as he had his problems and it’s great to get a race like this for him,” O’Neill said. “We were hopeful today we could land this and go on to bigger things.”
Castle Bar Sling sprang a 20 to 1 surprise in the Cambridgeshire, powering home in the closing stages under Wayne Lordan to overhaul Moran Gra. The Blenheim Stakes back at the Curragh in a fortnight’s time is the target for Crusade after the Ballydoyle colt won the juvenile maiden by a couple of lengths.
