It was the quarter-final stage of the Laurels at Curraheen Park over the weekend. While there were some quicker finish times on the card, Faypoint Harvey‘s win in that competition has to go down as the pick of the bunch.
Ballygibbon Cash won for the second week in a row at Galway. Two spots quicker than last week, he was only two spots off the quickest time three weeks back so was close to making it a hat-trick of wins in A3 grade as well as in this.
It was only an S5 contest that Gabriels Dream won at Lifford but it was also only the second start that he has made in his career! His dam was a solid sprinter at Mullingar back in 2018, producing the sixth quickest time of the year over 350y. He is also one of two on the list who is a December 22 whelp, the youngest of the week.
The other is Pragmatism who went one better, producing the performance of the week at Thurles on her race debut. Three spots outside the quickest of the year, it was a single spot slower than Tribal Syd produced in the second round of the Tipperary Cup in June. Her dam is a litter sister to Select Stakes winner Clona Duke. That makes her a half to the likes of Doolin Duke, Newinn Session and Newinn Jacko. Tougher tasks await but it was a spectacular debut for trainer Michael Donnelly.
