Buried on a Thursday evening fixture, Leopardstown's double-act of Group 3 races, the Japan Racing Association Tyros S. and Silver Flash S., could easily be downplayed in a month where so many seismic shifts are taking place. A glance at the races' honour roll suggests the opposite should be the case, with the Tyros in particular boasting three subsequent Classic winners in the last eight years. They were the Galileo (Ire) trio of Gleneagles (Ire), Churchill (Ire) and Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) and all hailed from Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stable which has enjoyed a record 15 winners including another future Classic hero in King of Kings (Ire) and the serious Group 1 merchants Rip Van Winkle (Ire) and Cape Blanco (Ire). 'TDN Rising Star' Age of Kings (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) is entrusted with the standard this time and after knockbacks in the G2 Coventry S. and G2 Railway S. needs to up his game upped to seven furlongs for the first time.
Family Pride
If Age of Kings falls short again, it will possibly be Donnacha O'Brien who could come to the fore with the fellow Coolmore representative Proud And Regal (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the son of Simply Perfect (GB) (Danehill) who won on debut over this trip at The Curragh June 26 and his trainer may have something to go to war with in the better juvenile contests of 2022. “We think he has progressed a good bit from that first run,” he warned.
Aidan also holds the record of wins in the Silver Flash for fillies, with his 11 winners including the subsequent Group 1-winning Galileo duo Happily (Ire) and Love (Ire) and in the June 24 Curragh maiden scorer Never Ending Story (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), the daughter of Athena (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), he has the hot favourite to do it again. Joseph enters the fray here, with one of his two entries being Eric Long's well-regarded June 12 Gowran Park maiden winner Zoinnocent (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}).
More Stars On Show?
Twelve months ago, Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) lit up Sandown in the Listed European Bloodstock News EBF Star S., and this year's renewal looks highly competitive with a trio of maiden winners heading the market in Godolphin's Fairy Cross (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Westerberg's Bet Me (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) and Jaber Abdullah's Dance In The Grass (GB) (Cracksman {GB}). While the Charlie Appleby-trained Fairy Cross did everything right on her second start at Newmarket June 25 and the Richard Hannon representative Bet Me looked smart in soft ground at Goodwood June 10, the Charlie and Mark Johnston-trained course-and-distance maiden scorer Dance In The Grass beat fair types including colts on debut June 10 and hails from the stable who have won this seven-furlong staging post twice since 2015.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
