Performance Review
August 2021
We had a couple of nice winners over the course of the month, the first of which came through a lovely two-year-old maiden performance from Cigamia over seven furlongs at Naas.
A homebred filly by Karakontie for the Niarchos family, she had been doing everything right beforehand and it was great to see her get the job done by two and three quarters of a length under Nathan. We'll have a look at the Group 3 Weld Park Stakes next on September 26 at the Curragh.
Cigamia gets the job done at Naas
Having been knocking on the door without any luck on her side, we were all delighted to get Fictitious Lady's head in front at Bellewstown - and she had to do it the hard way. For a long time she's been very consistent and deserved to get her first win. It was a great result for John and Peter Fagan at Deerpark Stud.
We actually ended up having the 1-2 in the race through Prince Hector running well for second, only just touched off late on. Hopefully his turn will come before long and there's a race that could suit him coming up in the next few weeks at Gowran.
A great result for Fictitious Lady at Bellewstown
It was a real shame that Loveday was just picked off after a great effort in the Listed Finlay Volvo Curragh Stakes earlier in the month. She ran a cracker in defeat. Hopefully the ground will stay right for her to take a chance in the Listed Rosebery Stakes at Ayr on September 17.
Pepper Streak produced three solid runs to start her career, finishing second at Naas in between fourths at Cork and Navan. The form of her Naas run has been given a boost since through the third winning a premier nursery. Hopefully she'll continue to progress.
One filly who deserves a change of luck is Punakha, finishing second on both her starts during the month. It was a pity that she just bumped into one at Roscommon last time as I thought she did everything right. We'll be doing our best to get her off the mark in due course.
Jungle Jane showed up well when not beaten far in a competitive sprint handicap at the Curragh. Although she finished in mid-division on her next start at Tipperary, I wasn't disheartened considering the very fast time that was clocked on the day. There could be a suitable race coming up for her back at Dundalk.
It wasn't a bad run by any means from Royal Canford off her new 7lb higher mark at Gowran when fourth. She'll take her chance in a premier handicap at Longines Irish Champions Weekend next month.
Give Her A Squeeze didn't have a good trip when lacking daylight at Gowran, finishing fourth, and there's a maiden coming up next month at Clonmel for her. Cnodian is a tough homebred filly for the O'Tooles and she ran a solid race to finish third at Naas during August too. Hul Ah Bah Loo was another who put up a decent performance in finishing second to an 80-rated winner at Tipperary and we're looking forward to seeing him build on that.
All of our team at Rathbride are working hard to keep the ball rolling into the last few months of the turf season. Here's hoping we can finish off strongly.