Sport is made for betting

Naas 1340 Mon May 1 EBF Fillies Maiden 6f, 1m10.60s (slow by 1.20s) Good to Firm Alpha Centauri . Feb 28, stable flying. Retained by breeder, three half-sisters went for €250k+ at sales. Led comfortably, lengthened stride nicely inside 2f and ran away from them. Actress . Jan 12. $250k yearling. Away well, camped on the leader's back. Stoked up at the 2f as leader kicked away. Not getting any closer to the winner but did manage to hold off rest of field comfortably. Shapes . Apr 30. Passed in for €68k at sales. Half-brother to a couple of RPR100+ horses who both won at two. Jumped well, parked close to the pace. Revved up at the 2f after being outpaced, kept on one pace. Yulong Gold Fairy . Apr 28, €8k yearling. Dam won three times as a 2yo then retired, peak OR91. Wore noseroll. Settled just ahead of midfield, reached third approaching furlong pole but weakened late to concede that position. Now You're Talking . Feb 5, €185k yearling. Half-sister to seven winners....

Naas 1445 Monday May 1 EBF Race 5f, 1m0.60s (slow by 2.80s) Good to Firm Dali . Runner-up at Dundalk on debut 19 days earlier. Led, moderate pace at best. Moore turned it into a 2f sprint for home and had them all comfortably covered. Hawaam . Mar 26. €120k yearling. Half-brother to the very speedy Waady. Wore noseroll. Eased to settle behind leader, always appeared to want to go faster. Looked likely to challenge approaching 2f but unable to get past Dali in sprint home. Nice debut. Trading Post . Mar 19. 40k gns yearling (€48k foal). Settled midfield but going too slow for him so pulled out into the breeze. Challenged near furlong but unable to go with them. Beat the rest well though, will win races. US Navy Flag . Feb 6. Full brother to G2-winning 2yo Roly Poly, would have cost a mint if he went through the sales ring. A little slow away, settled at the back on a walking pace early. Pushed along approaching 2f, outpaced, took time to get going, finally made some ground near...

For something different, I thought I'd try to keep up with this season's 2yo crop with reviews of each race. So let's kick it off with the opening juvenile race in Ireland... Naas (IRE) 26 Mar 2017 Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F. Maiden 5f, 1m3.7s (slow by 5.9s on RP standards) Soft to Heavy (Soft in places) The first juvenile race on the Irish calendar and as an unheralded maiden at Naas, you wouldn't expect much out of it. But roll back just five years (when it was run at The Curragh) and it was the debut of four-time Group 1 winner Dawn Approach. Last year's impressive winner at 25/1 Mister Trader went on to run second to Caravaggio at his next start before failing as favourite in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot. We await his reappearance as a 3yo. The 2015 winner State of Emergency ran three times as a juvenile and hasn't been seen since. Jim Bolger's winner in 2013, Saburo, never started again, at least in this part of the world (can't tel...