Prestige and Pace: Bar One Racing Flying Five Stakes Set to Light Up the Curragh
The eagerly-awaited Irish Champions Festival is fast approaching. Two days of top-class racing will take place on Saturday, 13th, and Sunday, 14th of September.
Saturday’s nine-race card at Leopardstown will include two Group One races and carry €2,600,000 in prize-money. The first race is due off at 2:15 pm, with the feature race, the €1,250,000 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, scheduled to start at 5:30 pm.
Sunday’s eight-race card at the Curragh will contain four Group One races and carry €2,450,000 in prize-money.
The Group One races on Sunday are The Moyglare Stud Stakes (for two-year-old fillies, 2.40 pm), the Bar One Racing Flying Five Stakes (3.15 pm), the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes (for two-year-olds, excluding geldings, 3.50 pm) and the Comer Group International Irish St Leger (4.25 pm), the final Irish Classic of the season.
Sunday’s card is set to begin at 1.30 pm.
We sponsored the Flying Five Stakes last year, initially in a one-off deal, but are now delighted to be sponsoring the €400,000 five-furlong contest for the next three years. The race was won twelve months ago by the British raider Bradsell, who was delivered to perfection by Hollie Doyle, who steered the winner home for trainer Archie Watson.
Thirty-eight horses were still entered for the race on September 3rd, a list laced with quality. For example, four of the first six horses in the betting have won Group One races.
These include the marvellous Australian mare Asfoora, who landed the Nunthorpe Stakes at York on August 22nd.
The others are the lightly-raced Time For Sandals, who won the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June, Aidan O’Brien’s 2024 Prix Morny winner, Whistlejacket, and the 2023 British Champions Sprint Stakes winner, Art Power, who has won four times from seven runs at the Curragh.
Other Group One winners currently still in the race are the 2023 Haydock Sprint Cup winner, Regional, and the 2023 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes winner Bucanero Fuerte, who is unbeaten in two runs this season, most recently the Group 3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes, which was run at the Curragh over six furlongs.
For good measure, Flying Five entries Time For Sandals and Arizona Blaze, who has one Group 2 and two Group 3 successes to his name, currently sit in co-second position in the Sprinter division of the Cartier Horse Of The Year Awards. Asfoora is not far behind them in sixth place.
There is no doubting that we are set fair for another superb Irish Champions Festival weekend at Leopardstown and the Curragh. Keep an eye on the Bar One Racing X account for potential ticket giveaways.
It’s all smiles for the winning connections and Bar One Racing following Bradsell’s Flying Five Stakes win at the Curragh in 2024
Bar One Racing Flying Five prices (available in shops)
**Initial prices published on Sept 3rd, with updates applied on Sept 5th
**After the prices you will find some stats for the Flying Five
Asfoora, 7/2 from 4/1)- The Aussie mare landed the Nunthorpe Stakes at York on Aug 22; it will be great to see her at the Curragh and she heads the betting for this year’s Flying Five
Time For Sandals, 5/1 (from 9/2) – This year’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup winner may miss the Curragh as she ran in the Haydock Sprint Cup on Sept 6th (where she finished seventh)
Whistlejacket, 9/1 (from 8/1) – Aidan O’Brien’s Group 1 2yo winner is reported to be showing signs of a return to form at home; he’s a 3yo, just like Aidan’s recent Flying Five winners, Caravaggio (2017) and Fairyland (2019)
Big Mojo, 10/1 – A dual-Group 3 winner, he finished second to Asfoora in this season’s July Cup but will miss the Curragh, having won the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup on Sept 6th
Bucanero Fuerte, 12/1 (from 11/1) – Seventh in the 2024 Flying Five, he’s been in fine form this season, including winning a six-furlong Group 3 race at the Curragh last time, and looks an improved horse now
Shes Quality, 12/1 – An admirable filly that has finished second in two Group 2 and two Group 3 races this season, although she finished five lengths behind Asfoora in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York last time
Washington Heights, 12/1 – He won a Listed Race at York on July 12th and ran well when fifth in the 2024 Flying Five; he finished third, beaten one length, in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock on May 24th, where he finished one length behind Mgheera and half-a-length behind Shes Quality
Arizona Blaze, 14/1 (from 12/1) – A Group 2 winner at the Curragh over the Flying Five trip on July 19th, he’d earlier finished second to Time For Sandals in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, although he finished six lengths behind Asfoora in the July Cup last time
Two Stars, 14/1 (from 16/1) – A lightly-raced 5yo, he has won three of his last four races, including a Listed Race at Naas last time. He’s open to further improvement but will need to find it as he steps up in class.
Night Raider, 16/1 (from 14/1) – He has yet to win above Listed level but ran well when fourth, beaten two-and-a-quarter lengths, to Asfoora in the July Cup at Newmarket last time
Art Power, 16/1 – This 9yo has been a great servant to connections, winning nine times and amassing nearly €1,000,000 in prize-money; he has won four times from seven runs at the Curragh and loves the venue. He has won a Group 1 race, the Qipco British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot in 2023
Mgheera, 16/1 – See Washington Heights – She won a Group 3 race in France on May 11th and followed up by landing the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock on May 24th. She finished four-and-a-quarter lengths behind Asfoora in the July Cup last time
Powerful Nation, 20/1 (from 16/1) – He’s won three of his 10 races and has scope for further improvement, although he has yet to win above Listed level
Super Sox, 20/1 (from 16/1) – A lightly-race 4yo filly, she has won three of her last six races, the latest of them being a Listed Race at Cork. She is open to further improvement, but will need to find some in order to get seriously involved, but the chances are that she will run at Doncaster on Sept 14th in the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes
25/1 bar
‘FLYING FIVE’ STATS
- Horses trained in Britain have won the Flying Five three times in the last five years and four in the last seven
- Four of the last eight winners were returned as favourite for the race
- Six of the last 10 winners were returned at 5/1 or shorter
- Seven of the last nine winners were drawn in stall 8 or lower, however…
- Last year’s winner, Bradsell, was drawn in stall 14 – but the sprint handicap that opened the card that day provided clues as to this possible outcome as the first four home were drawn in stalls 20, 12, 13 and 17
- Such high-class or top-class horses as Sole Power, Caravaggio, Havana Grey, Highfield Princess and Bradsell have won the Flying Five in the last ten years
- Caravaggio’s trainer Aidan O’Brien also won with Fairyland (2019) who, like Whistlejacket, his intended runner this year, were three-year-olds
- Three-year-olds have won three of the last eight Flying Fives, although Fairyland was the most-recent of them, however…
- A three-year-old finished second in 2020 and in 2021, and three-year-olds finished third and fourth in 2023
- Bradsell finished seventh in the race as a three-year-old in 2022
- Bucanero Fuerte finished seventh in the race last year when aged three; he looks an improved horse this year and is set to take his chance once again