John Quinn’s Mr Wagyu made a successful raid on the Paddy Power Scurry Handicap at the Curragh on Saturday.
Sent off the 5-1 joint-favourite, the winner was up with the pace in the centre of the track and showed plenty of guts to repel the challenge of Charles O’Brien’s Big Gossey, who had to settle for the silver medal.
Mr Wagyu was recording his second win of the season, with the versatile seven-year-old also scoring over seven furlongs at Epsom on Derby Day and this victory on his travels, which comes on the back of a respectable fourth behind Rohaan in the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Betfair responded to the victory by shortening Mr Wagyu to 8-1 from 14-1 for the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, but assistant trainer Sean Quinn was thinking a bit further down the road after the race.
He said: “He’s a horse that every year you get to June and he comes to himself.
“I don’t know why but he’s never won before June in his life. June and July seem to be his months and that was fantastic.
“We’ve a conundrum in September, a nice problem. He ran so well in the Ayr Gold Cup last year when he was third, but you’ve got the Bold Lad back here on Champions Weekend and they are only six days apart.
“I’ll leave that to the lads and they can make the decision.”