RACING:CURTAIN CALL thrived on the Curragh's heavy going yesterday and judging by trainer Luca Cumani's comments regarding future plans he is likely to return to the track sooner rather than later – "He will go wherever it rains. So we might be back!"
The Tattersalls Gold Cup could be a top-flight target in 19 days time but that is unlikely to work out as smoothly as yesterday’s High Chaparral Mooresbridge Stakes where Fran Berry guided Curtain Call to an all-the-way Group Three success.
“He could be called the winner some way out but we didn’t particularly want to make the running. That was Plan B but Fran did a perfect job on him,” said Newmarket-based Cumani.
Curtain Call won the Beresford Stakes at the Curragh as a two-year-old but Cumani is keen to make up for lost time with the horse this year. “We were slightly too ambitious last season. We knew he didn’t like fast ground and we ran him on it three times so we had to stop and start again,” he said after the colt justified an €8,500 supplementary fee. “Hopefully I won’t let him down this time like last year.”
After saddling placed horses in both Newmarket Classics at the weekend Jim Bolger will keep on the Group One trail at Longchamp next Sunday with Intense Focus due to line up in the French 2,000 Guineas.
He will do so with the stable continuing their red-hot run of success at home as the odds-on Vocalised made it three from three this season with another Group Three victory in the Tetrarch Stakes.
He is now due to keep his own Classic date in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and on better ground Bolger predicted an even better display. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” the trainer said. “He’s a proper horse and he would have struggled a bit on that ground.”
Bolger and jockey Kevin Manning were also on the mark with a 14 to 1 shot in the juvenile maiden as Atasari’s stamina helped her to a half-length defeat of Clashnacree and the favourite, Alfred Nobel.
“She needs a mile already and she handled the ground,” Bolger reported.
Aidan O’Brien’s decision not to run anything in the Athasi Stakes left Johnny Murtagh free to team up with Emily Blake and he made the most of the opportunity to secure a rare Group Three prize for local trainer John Hayden.
“At 10 on Sunday morning we saw Aidan had nothing declared so we got Johnny. He has been good to us over the years and we were delighted to get him,” said Hayden.
Murtagh’s decision to make all on the 2008 Athasi runner-up paid off in spades as she comfortably held the favourite, Mad About You, through the closing stages.
“She has been covered by Invincible Spirit so hopefully she is in foal,” Hayden added. “I’ve entered her for a six-furlong Group Three at Leopardstown but the ground today made all the difference.”
The Curragh’s sole bumper of the year fell to the “bumper king” Willie Mullins as Fionnegas beat Our Musician and Spencer’s Hill in a finish of short heads with the Cheltenham placed Rite Of Passage only fourth.
The latter’s stable companion, Cnocan Gold, also started favourite in the seven-furlong handicap but got touched off close home by Dafaroun, whose cause looked hopeless in the early stages when a detached last.
Jockey Billy Lee was coolness itself, though, and secured a fine run up the rail to nail Cnocan Gold by half a length.
Beidh Tine Anseo started favourite to secure a Bolger-Manning treble in the concluding maiden but this was a one-horse race in the closing stages as Love Bird went clear under Wayne Lordan.
