Kirinda

Kirinda is the filly to take out of the Group 3 Kilboy Estate Stakes at The Curragh on Sunday, given where she came from and how well she finished. She travelled really well into the home straight, having been settled out the back on the rails, but she met traffic when Johnny Murtagh pulled her out to make her run, with the result that the rider had to just sit on her for a little longer than he wanted to. Even though she had daylight by the quarter-mile post, Murtagh did not ask her for her effort until about a furlong and a half put, by which time the winner, her stablemate Manieree, who had kicked six lengths clear as they rounded the turn for home, had gone beyond recall.

Murtagh appeared keen to let his filly find her feet before really asking her to pick up, and when he did she finished really strongly down the outside to come past most of the field into second, but had left it too late, the winner was still a length and three quarters ahead as they crossed the line. Kirinda was almost certainly the best filly in the race though, and although she may have been had to be coaxed into putting her best foot forward in the straight, the suspicion is that she would have won if she had made her effort sooner.

The daughter of Tiger Hill does race keenly, she does need to be covered up and settled and, as such, it will always be difficult for her rider to time her run properly. That said, she is highly talented. She was an exciting prospect at the start of the season, having readily seen off Empowering on her racecourse debut in December in a seven-furlong Dundalk maiden, her only run as a juvenile. She ran slightly below expectations on her first two starts of this year, but it is possible there have been problems with her, she didn’t run at two until December after all and she was given an 11-week break prior to this run. John Oxx’s horses had been quiet through April and May, so that may have contributed to her recent break, but they are running much better now and Kirinda will be interesting wherever she goes next. She is a speedy filly, she must be to make up the amount of ground she did inside the final furlong, and she could do even better dropped in trip now, despite her pedigree suggesting middle distances should be her forte. Also, she should learn to settle better with experience. She remains interesting.

17th July 2011