Curragh Saturday Preview - 17/07/21

The first race of the day is the seven furlong maiden and the horse that takes the eye for ability and experience is the Dermot Weld trained Barud.

The son of Kodiac was an expensive purchase as a foal and yearling and on his two starts to date has shown enough ability to warrant backing him today.

He made his seasonal debut this term at the Curragh over 6f and finished a decent third, beating The Acropolis who has since gone on to frank the form.

Barud then stepped up to 7f in another maiden over course and distance and was a fair fourth behind the Chesham winner Point Lonsdale.

The second in that race has since franked the form and having much more experience than this field could be the difference.

The Group Three Anglesey Stakes over six furlongs sees some talented youngsters head to post and the one we are most keen on is the Joseph O'Brien trained Hadman.

This two year old has come on for each of his four runs this term, winning both of his last two event and on Saturday seeks a hat-trick stepping up in class.

Having ran in a good maiden on debut, he then finished a fair third behind the very exciting Dr Zempf next time out over course and distance.

Off the back of that run he finally broke his maiden at the third time of asking over 7f, with the second and third both winning since to frank the form.

Hadman then went to Naas and also gave the form of that race a boost when winning again in good style and the second that day has also since gone on to win.

Although he steps up to the Group Three having no black type experience his form line speaks for himself and he looks to be highly progressive.

In the Group Two Sapphire Stakes over five furlongs we like the look of the Johnny Murtagh trained Measure Of Magic, who might just have some of the stand out form on offer.

The three year old filly heads into this event getting weight off the majority of the field, but she also has the secret weapon of being versatile on both quick and slow ground.

The daughter of Kodi Bear has been a superb sprinter for the yard over the last year or so, being highly consistent as a juvenile and carrying that on into this term.

She made her seasonal debut at Navan in April over 6f and in a good Listed event she managed to see off the likes of Logo Hunter and Lipizzaner, who she could take on again.

The filly made it back to back wins at Cork next time out taking out a superb Listed event and then last time having been stepped up to Group One company she as a bold third on heavy ground in the Group One Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

Her first two wins this season came on good and her latest smart third came on heavy, so whatever the surface she looks a big contender dropping back into this Group Two

The feature event of the afternoon at The Curragh is the Group One Irish Oaks and although a very short price, Snowfall should not be beaten by this field.

Having needed her first two runs as a juvenile, she got off the mark at The Curragh at the third time of asking in a Fillies' Maiden.

However, since then she has raced four times between seven furlongs and a mile in decent graded events and has struggled being outclassed.

Stepping up in trip on debut this term brought bring improvement out of her, when winning the Group Three Musidora Stakes at York over 10.5f.

Many thought off the back of that she should have been closer in the market to her stablemate Santa Barbara, and they were right.

Snowfall went on to take the event with ease, winning by a record 16 lengths for Aidan O'Brien and jockey Frankie Dettori and that saw the handler land the event for the ninth time.

She is the big odds on favourite to land the Oaks double and if performing anything like she did at Epsom then she will not be beaten.

Future star.

The penultimate selection from us on Saturday comes in the big fielded Scurry Handicap over six furlongs and at a nice price Grammata gets out verdict.

The Denis Hogan trained filly is near the bottom of the weights in this event and holds some earlier form of much higher marks that put him bang in with a chance if reproducing it.

At the back end of last term the three year old won a 5f maiden in good style which saw the yard think she could have a big season this term.

She has been seen four times so far this year, finishing sixth of 15 on debut in a decent handicap with the winner Logo Hunter since going onto frank it on numerous occasions.

since then she has been up and down with her best run coming at Cork over 5f when she was a close third off a mark of 84.

She runs off the same mark again today, getting good ground which is the surface of her only win and with all these things coming together it could be her day.

The final event of the afternoon in Ireland is the two mile handicap and the Ted Walsh trained Dewcup looks the pick of the bunch to us.

The six year old has been tried over both spheres in his career, winning some nice races as a hurdler and also running in some even better races.

Two starts ago he was seen finishing a fair third over a shorter trip at Ballinrobe and then stepped up to this course and distance last time out off a mark of 77 and was an extremely close second.

Only 4lb higher today he still looks well in and could be tough to catch if improving again.