Murtagh dreaming big with unbeaten Curracloe

Johnny Murtagh is excited to see what the future holds for Curracloe after she doubled her tally in the Darley Fillies Stakes at the Curragh.

The daughter of Baaeed made a big impression when winning on her debut as a 22-1 shot at Gowran Park at the start of the month and she was a 13-8 joint-favourite to successfully step up to Group Three level.

Carrying the Qatar Racing silks, Curracloe was positioned in third for much of the seven-furlong journey, with the front-running Tosca No Candis and Alpine Wedding the two in her sights.

As the pacesetter dropped away entering the final two furlongs, Alpine Wedding looked to be going well in the lead, but she was soon joined and passed by Murtagh’s filly who careered away late on to win comfortably by two and three-quarters lengths.

Damsel In Distress, the other joint-favourite, never really threatened to land a telling blow but made some late headway into third place.

Murtagh said: “She is a very nice filly. For ours to win first time out the way she did, she’s a bit special.

“It was a beautiful race for her today. I was a bit worried about the ground but as Ben (Coen, jockey) said to me this morning ‘the good ones seem to go on any ground, Johnny’, and we think she’s a good one.

“She quickened up really well when she got there. She was a little bit unbalanced on the ground but she’s just probably good.

“She was able to cope today but I think you’ll see a much better filly on faster ground. Today was important, another test passed. She’ll probably have harder steps along the way but we were very happy with the way she won today.

“She strikes me as a Guineas filly. Those long cold nights in the winter will feel a bit shorter with her to look forward to!”

Following four winners across meetings at the Curragh and Newmarket on Saturday, Aidan O’Brien rounded off a productive weekend with a double on the card courtesy of Raging Bull and Capability Brown.

Raging Bull (1-2 favourite) improved on his debut seventh at the track to land the Army Equitation Centenary Irish European Breeders Fund Maiden in the hands of Ryan Moore, while Capability Brown (4-1) upstaged his odds-on stablemate Kingdom Of Camelot (finished fourth) in the Izuzu Ireland Irish European Breeders Fund Maiden under Wayne Lordan.

Of Raging Bull, O’Brien said: “He’s a fast ground horse. Ryan said he was very worried going to the start on him but he has a big engine, he’s tough and very genuine.

“He’s going to be lovely. Himself and the second (Overhead Drive) pulled a long ways clear. That could be it for the season now.

“Capability Brown is a lovely horse and handled the ground. He has a little bit of class. He could be very comfortable at a mile next year, or a mile and a quarter.

“Ryan (Moore, on Kingdom Of Camelot) was drawn out wide and it can be difficult out there. He said he just felt the ground (was) tough but he’ll be fine.”

Fozzy Stack’s Valentino Eclipse (2-5 favourite) confirmed the promise of his first two runs when comfortably opening his account at the third attempt in the Celebrating County Kildare And Lexington Twinning Maiden, with Seamie Heffernan doing the steering.

“He did that well and he’s a horse we’ve always liked,” said Stack.

“He probably didn’t quite get the mile here the last day and is probably a six or seven-furlong horse. He is a horse that could turn into something.

“He probably needs a little bit of ease underfoot. I had a couple of good horses out of the family before and this fella could turn out to be the best of them.”