Our columnist reflects on the Irish Champion Festival runs of Almaqam and Time For Sandals and looks ahead to his Saturday rides at Newbury.
Ultimately Almaqam ran well last Saturday, he was still fourth in an Irish Champion Stakes, and I felt everything was going well through the race.
The ground was definitely a little tighter than I anticipated and I just felt at Leopardstown when you run into that little dip between the three and the two pole I just lost him. I was really happy with our position and how he was moving but just thought when we went into the dip I just lost him for a few strides at a crucial, crucial stage of the race when the likes of Constitution River just started to quicken.
As you could see he was just staying on all the way to the line and is possibly more suited to a flatter track but he ran well all the same.
With Time For Sandals in the Flying Five it was just the case of being drawn on the wrong side. Amazingly the ground at the Curragh, only 40 minutes down the road, was soft and she was under pressure from a long way out which is most unlike her. She usually travels so well in her races. So I knew from a long way out I was struggling and we can just put a line through the run.
