Meeting Review: Leopardstown, October 27th

Positives: When Mick Kinane opted to ride Vitruvian Man in the Killavullan Stakes, I was starting to doubt my claim that Rayeni was a ‘formality’ for the Group 3 but initial impressions of the Indian Ridge colt’s debut proved well-founded as he fairly bolted away with things. Settled in sixth, Fran Berry and the Aga Khan colt made up ground effortlessly turning into the straight and was still on the bridle as he took things up a furlong from home before going away to win by an easy length and a half. The visuals were striking and, as at Naas, the performance was backed up by the clock as he clocked by far the best time of the four races run over 7f on the card. Oxx has a strong crop of juvenile colts this season and I suspect this one is the pick though his trainer has pointed out that he needs to get his toe in. With that in mind he’s probably not one to consider for an ante-post bet but given the weather that we’ve had over the past two summers he may have ample opportunity to prove himself on his ideal conditions in 2009 and looks an strong candidate to uphold this race’s recent tradition of throwing up classic winners – Grey Swallow and Footstepsinthesand won it in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Qassaar was the last horse off the bit in the 7f colts & geldings maiden before managing only fourth but he looks well worth another try on a faster surface. By Cape Cross, he’s bred to like some decent ground and none of his 5 winning siblings had won on slower than good-soft. A run at Dundalk before the end of the season could be a distinct possibility.

Negatives: I don’t know if the Peter Canavan who owns Toraidhe (runner-up in the 7f maiden) is the same Peter Canavan that captained Tyrone to their first All-Ireland success, but if he is then the great Gaelic footballer will be disappointed to know that his juvenile has none of his genuine attitude to competition. The son of High Chaparral looked a difficult ride under Danny Mullins and his head carriage wouldn’t endear him either. Some of this may be down to inexperience but even so he’s not one I’d rush to back at a short price in a maiden next time.

Pointers: The strength of the Oxx juveniles was alluded to above and the Curraghbeg trainer maintained his excellent 50% strike-rate with 2yos at the track with two more winners, bringing his seasonal record to 9 winners from 18 runners. Such figures bode well for next season and while Rayeni could well prove the star of the show there are a number of others that could progress into top-level performers. The likes of Arazan and Sea The Stars have already been well-touted but keep an eye on the unexposed Beauty O’Gwaun who beat a talented sort in The Bull Hayes by 3ls at the Curragh on October 20th. The same horse had been beaten by just 2ls when 5th in the Goffs Million on his most recent start, a piece of form that paints Beauty O’Gwaun in a good light. Having run well over course and distance on his penultimate start, Mull On The Run was unsurprisingly a warm order in the Apprentice Handicap Final over 9f but the 4yo ran no sort of race and finished a tailed off last. It’s possible the ground (officially yielding-soft) was too slow for the gelding (all 3 of his wins had come on good-yielding or faster) but perhaps more to the point, he had sweated up badly in the preliminaries on what was one of the coldest days of the autumn so far and can be forgiven this poor run. Peacock’s Pride was unable to follow up his Navan success on Wednesday in the closing event but his runner-up finish marks him down as something of a 10f specialist, his record at the trip now reading:2112.