Interesting 2YO races at the Curragh. The 4.30 is a 6F maiden with several possibilities. Aidan O'Brien sends out The Lute Player and he is a son of Caravaggio, so no surprises that the horse is named after a Caravaggio painting. He is a half brother to Sir Dragonet and Sir Lucan, both of whom need trips of 12F plus, so is 6F on the sharp side? The punters seem to think so, as he is on the drift.
Cowboy Justice is a Harrington colt by Lope De Vega and the Timeform blurb on ATR give him only two stars out of five on his chances today. He is Favourite though, so layers must be seeing something the Timeform man is not.
Beauty Inspire seems best backed and is heading to usurp Cowboy Justice as market leader. He is one of two Mehmas colts Ger Lyons has in the field, with the other being Sen Ding. Not overly expensive at 25 Grand, Beauty Inspire is very much the one for money at about 3/1, with Sen Ding unwanted at 28/1.
War Effort is another Mehmas colt, this time handled by Johnny Murtagh. He cost just 19,000 Euros as a foal but was sold for £190,000 as a yearling, meaningthat was a nice profit for somebody and a but of pressure for someone else to get a return on. Murtagh is in good form but is yet to saddle a 2YO winner this season according to Racing Post stats.
As Save The Humans said, Memory Motel is quite and expensive filly. By Kodiac, she is very weak in the betting today and that could well be because trainer Fozzy Stack has been very quiet and is on a 37 runner losing streak spanning 34 days. That has to be a concern for me.
I decided to go with Ultramarine in the hope that he can build on a promising first effort. The son of Zoffany was 4th and not beaten too far in a length and a quarter behind the winner. I felt he might have finished second with a little further to run and he showed some greenness that day before getting the hang of it in the closing stages. I feel any progress might make him tough to beat today but there is always the chance that one of the newcomers is very smart. At odds of 9/2 though I think there is reason to believe he can win at a fair price.
4.30 Curragh Ultramarine 9/2