Curragh set for final fixture of 2021 season on Tuesday

There are two Derby prizes on the card while Toy could show promise for Aidan O’Brien

Jamie Codd will be bidding for a maiden Paddy Power Amateur Riders Derby on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Jamie Codd will be bidding for a maiden Paddy Power Amateur Riders Derby on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

The final Curragh fixture of 2021 takes place on Tuesday with a couple of Derby prizes up for grabs.

Four months to the day since Hurricane Lane landed the €1 million Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby, there are two other varieties of Blue Riband on offer at HQ.

The Paddy Power Amateur Riders Derby is a decade old and already features some of the best in that business on its roll of honour.

Jamie Codd has a chance to add his name to it on the Jessica Harrington trained Protagonist although his old rival Patrick Mullins might hold an edge on the former course and distance winner Micro Manage.

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The final race on the card however is the inaugural Horseware Student Derby, an exhibition event featuring riders from universities involved in the European Student Horseracing Federation.

Harry Swan, son of the nine-time champion jump jockey, Charlie Swan, may be the one to side with on Lunar Display.

Real classic implications though may arise from the opening fillies maiden.

A number of these two-year-olds are bred to be good but none more so than the Aidan O’Brien newcomer, Toy.

She possesses one of the most glittering pedigrees in world racing as a sister to the Group 1 quartet, Gleneagles, Marvellous, Happily and this year’s French Oaks heroine, Joan Of Arc.

Her stable companion Ark is also by Galileo and they line up alongside another newcomer in Jessica Harrington’s Ha Ha Ha who cost a serious €400,000 as a yearling.

Of those with form Dissociate ran well on testing ground here in May and was reported lame after her only subsequent start.

New York City might find conditions more testing than ideal in another two year old maiden but his 101 rating is hard to argue with.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column