Raadobarg

Raadobarg ran well to finish fourth in the Listed Celebration Stakes at The Curragh on Saturday. Settled back in the field early on, sixth of the nine runners, he came under a ride as they levelled up for home and, while the leaders got away from him, he stayed on well down the outside through the final furlong and a half to take fourth place, two and a half lengths behind the winner Wexford Native.

It was difficult to make ground from the rear all weekend on the round course at The Curragh, as it often is. They didn’t go a great pace here, as evidenced by the winner’s finishing speed of 109.11% (Raadobarg’s was 110.57%, and he covered the final three furlongs in 34.46secs, faster than all his rivals), which accentuated the difficulty faced by the hold-up horses. The first three home, Wexford Native, The Acropolis and Emphatic Answer, occupied three of the first four places from early, and Raadobarg did well to get as close to them as he did.

Winner of three races as a three-year-old for Roger Varian, including the Class 2 Silver Bowl at Haydock, the Night Of Thunder gelding won the Irish Lincoln on his debut this season on easy ground, on his first run for Johnny Murtagh. He followed up by winning at Tipperary on heavy ground over seven and a half furlongs, beating subsequent listed race winner Lust into second place. You have to forgive him an abject performance in a listed race at Longchamp at the end of May, but you easily can now on the back of Saturday’s run. He is a half-brother to the sprinter Captain Dunne, but he stays a mile well, and he shapes as if he could get further, and his best runs have been on easy ground. He holds an entry in the Group 3 Meld Stakes at Leopardstown next month over nine furlongs, and he will be of interest if he lines up in that, especially if the ground happened to come up on the easy side. He would also be of interest if he was kept now for an autumn campaign.
The Curragh, 25^th June 2022