A week that contained its share of talking points ended with an utterly dominant display from Aidan O’Brien’s star juvenile Caravaggio in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday.

In truth the first Group 1 of the year in Europe for juveniles represented an utterly straight forward task for Caravaggio. He faced just four rivals and at odds of 1/8, he was the shortest priced favourite in the race’s history even though he was bidding to become just the second Coventry Stakes winner in the last quarter of a century to follow up in this contest.

That statistic was no barrier to success and Caravaggio disposed of his rivals in the manner expected to make it four wins from as many starts.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the immediate future this Scat Daddy colt, hailed by his trainer as the fastest horse he has had under his care, was pointed towards a possible crack at the Prix Morny at Deauville later this month. O'Brien said that the horse hit 45mph in his last piece of work at Ballydoyle, a speed never achieved by any other horse he had trained.

While a step up to seven furlongs this season wasn’t totally ruled out, it would appear that Caravaggio is destined to stick to sprint distances in 2016. It will be fascinating to see whether connections attempt to stretch him out to a mile as a three-year-old.

Aidan O’Brien’s juvenile team have really been in sparkling form for the last number of weeks and another treble for his two-year-olds at the Curragh on Sunday is testament to the wealth of talent at his disposal.

Furthermore the trainer was responsible for another two-year-old effort of real note at Tipperary last Friday when Capri eased to a resounding success in the Listed Canford Cliffs Stakes. It was perhaps a little surprising to see Capri turn out so quickly just six days after winning a maiden at Galway and he faced off against several promising maiden winners.

However, the imposing grey took this quick return to action in his stride to win very convincingly. It is early days yet but he appeals as a potential Group 1 winner.

Elsewhere, the domestic sprinting division looks to be going through something of a trough at the moment, but there was a lot to like about the display of Toscanini in the Phoenix Sprint Stakes on Sunday.

This son of Shamardal was placed at Group 1 level as a two-year-old in 2014 but has taken time to deliver on that potential.

It has been all change on his last few outings though and his gritty defeat of the English raider Eastern Impact will make him a formidable foe for any overseas raiders in the coming months.

The same race also saw last season’s brilliant two-year-old champion Air Force Blue make his latest appearance and unfortunately he trailed in at the rear, again looking a shadow of the horse that carried all before him last year.

BETTING COUP

It is over a week since Charles Byrnes’ Roscommon coup elevated an otherwise low key Tuesday evening’s racing to a story of major significance in the racing industry. Predictably, much comment has accompanied the trainer’s treble and the markedly improved form shown by each of his winners.

As one would expect, there was outcry from some quarters of the bookmaking industry while on various platforms it was debated as to how damaging something like this is to the image of racing. On another point though one has to question what the authorities hope to achieve when it was reported that they were looking into the gamble further.

Aside from the improvement in form enquiries which accompanied two of the Byrnes' winners, it is hard to know what else the Turf Club can do with regard to Roscommon. Instead perhaps a closer examination of running and riding rules and their implementation and application on a day-to-day basis is what is required.