Irish Performance of the Week - 10 March 2026

Deniro brings the heat in the Juvenile Classic final

The final of the T Nolan C.V.R.T. Centre Juvenile Classic looked a really strong renewal on paper, and should be a good guide for the top competitions through the rest of the year. Ballymac Deniro picked the perfect moment to produce his best break of the competition, stopping the clock just a length and a half off the track record. 

Another to produce the best time of the year to this point, and just 20 spots off the clock, was Bombay Special at Cork. It was by far the top performance of her career to this point and with only 11 starts in the book, it could be that there is going to be more to come from her. She's won eight of those 11, with this in the opening round of the Cork Oaks.

40.72 was a smart run at Waterford in our last POW from Lennies Desire but a 40.31 this last week was outstanding. It's 10 years since Tradition produced a 40.11 run over 731y at the track, with this the quickest run since. His 28.39 track record over 500m at Towcester last summer was special but he has shown that he stays six bends as well now and could open up some more serious targets.

It is back-to-back weeks with a pair of Lennies winning POW with Lennies Eddie taking the award at Limerick. Making just the fourth start of his life, he produced the best run of the year so far, with only four times quicker in the entirety of 2025. 

It was hard to oppose Ballinabola Joe as our POW winner at Mullingar, successful for Pat Buckley in the final of the Time Irish Cesarewitch, especially given what the win will have meant to the Buckley family after the passing of Mike Buckley.

The win of Foulkescourt Cody in the Midlands Derby, however, was nothing short of spectacular. He equalled the quickest ever time at the track over the 550y distance. Bective Rosy in November 2024 is the only dog to have gone quicker and that was only by six spots.