Prestige and Pace: Bar One Racing Flying Five Stakes Set to Light Up the Curragh
We are all set for the Irish Champions Festival. Two days of top-class racing 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 for 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, 2.40pm), the Bar One Racing Flying Five Stakes (3.15pm), the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes (for two-year-olds, excluding geldings, 3.50pm) and the Comer Group International Irish St Leger (4.25pm), the final Irish Classic of the season.
Prices on the runners for these races can be found below. 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.
Sixteen horses have been declared for the ‘Flying Five’, and it’s a field that is laced with quality. For example, four of the first five 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. She will be bidding to become the first horse trained in Australia to win a race in Ireland.
The other Group 1 winners are Aidan O’Brien’s 2024 Prix Morny winner, Whistlejacket, the 2023 British Champions Sprint Stakes winner, Art Power, who has won four times from seven runs at the Curragh, 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, co-sixth in the market is Arizona Blaze, who has one Group 2 and two Group 3 successes to his name. Also, he currently sits in co-second position in the Sprinter division of the Cartier Horse Of The Year Awards, with Asfoora not far behind him 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 to stay up to date in the build-up to the Irish Champions Festival, two of the best two days of racing you will see anywhere in the world.
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)
**Prices as at Sept 12th
**After the prices you will find some stats for the Flying Five plus prices for the other three Group 1 races at the Curragh on Sunday, Sept 14.
Asfoora, 11/4 – The Aussie mare landed the Group 1 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. She also won the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2024 for her extremely sporting connections
Bucanero Fuerte, 9/2 (from 12/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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
Night Raider, 8/1 (from 16/1 on Sept 3rd) – He has yet to win above Listed level but has run just 12 times and ran well when fourth, beaten two-and-a-quarter lengths, to Asfoora in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York last time
Arizona Blaze, 9/1 (from 14/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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 ‘Nunthorpe’ last-time out
Art Power, 10/1 (from 16/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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, 10/1 (from 16/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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 ‘Nunthorpe’ last-time out
Shes Quality, 10/1 (from 12/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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
Whistlejacket, 10/1 – 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); he will race in blinkers for the first time on Sunday
Two Stars, 10/1 (from 16/1 on Sept 3rd) – 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.
Nighteyes, 20/1 – She won a Listed Race at Naas last year and has been placed in a Group 3 race but she finished four lengths behind Bucanero Fuerte when fifth in a Group 3 race at the Curragh on August 9th
33/1 bar
Among the 33/1 shots is Powerful Nation (from 16/1 on Sept 3rd) – He’s won three of his 10 races and has scope for further improvement, although he has yet to win above Listed level
‘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
Moyglare Stud Stakes, 2.40pm
Composing, 11/8
Venetian Sun, 13/8
Beautify, 6/1
Precise, 12/1
Suzie Songs, 20/1
Pivotal Attack, 33/1
Skydance, 33/1
Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes, 3.50pm
Gstaad, Evens
Saba Desert, 4/1
Zavateri, 5/1
Italy, 9/1
North Coast, 10/1
Dorset, 20/1
Comer Group International Irish St Leger, 4.25pm
Al Riffa, 2/1
Illinois, 9/4
Amiloc, 3/1
Al Qareem, 9/1
Crystal Black, 12/1
Queenstown, 33/1
Leinster, 20/1
Dallas Star, 40/1
Waldadler, 50/1