Matrika fires O'Brien and Moore to a brace of winners

Odds-on-favourite Matrika hit as big as 5/1 in-running for the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes in the Curragh, but stamped her class on proceedings at the business end of this six-furlong race.

The seven runners split into two groups and Matrika led the stands'-side quartet, however, to the eye they were certainly in arrears of the far-side trio led by Do It With Style with two furlongs to travel.

Matrika showed good pace between the '2' and the '1' poles and, as the camera panned to a more side-on shot, she was in front in the final 100 yards.

The 2/5 favourite powered home from two horses that chased her on the stands' side. Runner-up Gunzburg (11/1) was beaten a length and three-parts while third-placed Ashwiyaa was four lengths in arrears of the winner.

Matrika had been gunned down in second in the closing stages of the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot just over a week ago.

This brought up another opening-race double of Irish Derby weekend for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore. They landed the first race on the card with newcomer City Of Troy

“She has a great constitution and we were very happy with her,” said O'Brien.

“The first day she ran we were surprised because she's very lazy at home, we didn't really know what to expect but she won.

“Then she went to Ascot and ran a lovely race, but was a little green and babyish. Obviously she learned plenty from it again.

“She came out of the race, lost no weight. She doesn't blow at all, it takes nothing out of her — she's very natural. Ryan gave her a lovely ride.

“She's not slow, she has plenty of speed. Obviously, you'd hope that she might get seven (furlongs), because she is very relaxed, but she is No Nay Never and they have a lot of natural speed and find it very easy to go very fast.

“We'll stay at six for a while and if we have to step up to seven we will.

“I don't want to be too easy on her because she has a big backside on her and I don't want her to get too big. We'll have to keep her going to a point.

“She's a Group 2 winner now and there are probably not too many places we'll be able to go with her. You'd be hoping she's going to be a Cheveley Park filly.”

Moore added: "She ran super in the Albany.

"She behaved beautifully today as well.

"Obviously, it was a funny race with seven runners and we split in half. It is hard to really know what is going on, but she got into a good rhythm.

"She was a bit lonely in front but, every time I asked her, she kept responding.

"I think they (far side trio) were ahead of us through the middle stages. We just got ourselves comfortable and kept coming. I probably asked for a little bit too early really.

"The ground is on the easy side of good."

Paddy Power cut Matrika from 14/1 to 8/1 for the 1,000 Guineas.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson