JP McManus is renowned as one of National Hunt racing’s most powerful owners but his increasing influence on the flat can be further advertised should Fit For The Job land Sunday's €100,000 Tote Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh.
The famous green and gold colours have already had a notable strike at flat racing's HQ this season with Iveagh Gardens' Athasi Stakes success in May, contributing to McManus's total of 14 victories on the level in Ireland this term.
That's a tally mostly surpassed by the likes of Coolmore, Godolphin, Qatar and the Aga Khan, and it has been produced by ten individual winners, the same as the world-renowned Moyglare Stud.
McManus is likely to pass the €200,000 prizemoney mark this weekend with three runners on the flat at Wexford on Saturday before four more at the Curragh where Fit For The Job is joined in the handicap feature by his older brother Hidden Oasis.
Handicap success
The Cambridgeshire picture is further added to by Hint Of A Tint, owned by McManus’s daughter, Sue-Ann Foley, who has already pulled off a notable handicap success this summer, taking advantage of a slide in the ratings to land Galway’s Topaz Mile a month ago.
Hint Of A Tint has been hiked 9lbs for that victory and is reunited with McManus's No.1 flat rider, Fran Berry, leaving Wayne Lordan to team up with Fit For The Job.
The fact Lordan appears to prefer the younger of the two brothers looks significant considering Hidden Oasis sports first-time blinkers, is stepped back up to a mile, is substantially lower in the ratings compared to his juvenile days and looked unlucky at Galway last time.
However he had a dream passage compared to Fit For The Job a few days later who practically got knocked down in the closing stages in a seven furlong event won by Sacrificial.
Considering he was also very slowly away that day, Fit For The Job's 89 mark looks attractive compared to the mark he started the season on and his adaptability ground-wise could make him a big-price each way option for this big prize.
Hint Of A Tint is potentially still reasonably treated on her best form but there are a number of potential improvers here such as Portage and the Ruby Stakes winner Algonquin that could hold better claims among the market leaders.
Algonquin beat Devonshire at Killarney and the latter can boost that form in the Group Three Dance Design Stakes now that Willie McCreery's filly gets softer ground.
A stormer
Devonshire ran a stormer on yielding going in the Curragh 1,000 Guineas last May and her third to Pleascach and Found is very high-class form. Getting 12lbs from the topweight Brooch will be a big help here and the McCreery yard continues in fine form.
The Curragh's other Group Three, the Round Tower Stakes, sees Jim Bolger's cold Smash Williams make a quick reappearance after a superb debut last weekend. Bolger runs Stellar Mass in the opening maiden but that colt will do well to confirm his superiority over Beacon Rock based on their debut shows behind Restive.
