Bargain buys put smaller Flat yards in Curragh spotlight

Despite the success enjoyed by Aidan O'Brien, who won seven of the 23 races over three days of racing at the Curragh, the Irish Derby festival offered substantial evidence to suggest the spoils of Irish Flat racing are being shared out across a wide spectrum of owners and trainers.

This is in contrast to the scenario over jumps, where the firepower held by a handful of owners has seeped down from Graded races and valuable conditions races to exert a powerful influence in handicaps, particularly the bigger-value races which, in the past, more typically provided a big payday for a smaller yard and owners of relatively modest means.

On account of fundamental differences in structures and priorities in the two codes, handicaps are inevitably of relatively minor consequence in the eyes of the leading Flat trainers. For an assortment of reasons, we are reaching a situation whereby a traditional stereotype is being turned on its head. Irish Flat racing, below the top level at least, arguably now provides smaller owners with a better chance of a return on investment than their jumps-oriented counterparts.