Kevin Blake's Big Race Verdict: Henri Matisse looks rock solid in National Stakes

• National Stakes looks at the mercy of impecabbly bread Henri Matisse

• Aidan O'Brien colt has been learning with every race

• Joseph O'Brien runner could chase favourite home at a big price

The second day of the Irish Champion Festival takes place at the Curragh on Sunday. While Leopardstown might be considered the more cosmopolitan and glamourous leg of the two-day meeting, the Curragh is where four of the six Group 1s of the meeting take place.

Ireland's two Group 1 races for juveniles both take place on this card and it is the Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes (16:10) that I'm going to focus on.

Impeccable breeding for race favourite

This race is named in honour of the late great Vincent O'Brien who remains the most successful trainer in the history of the race having won it 15 times with legends such as Sir Ivor, Roberto and El Gran Senor.

Aidan O'Brien is closing in on that tally having won it 12 times, but the rate of erosion has slowed in recent years with Aidan only winning one of the last seven renewals. However, he looks to have an excellent chance to further close the gap in this year's race with a team headed up by Henri Matisse.

Henri Matisse very much fits the bill of what one wants a potential champion to be. His pedigree is impeccable. His dam Immortal Verse was the very best filly on the track ever produced by the wonderful Pivotal. She locked horns with legends and most famously produced a wonderful performance to beat the mighty Goldikova in the Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville before finishing a fine third to no less Frankel and Excelebration in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot.

After such a wonderful racing career, it would have greedy in the extreme to expect her to match her racecourse exploits in the breeding paddocks, but she is making a fair go of it.

Having changed hands for 4,700,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2013, it took her a little while to find her stride as a broodmare with her first three runners not coming up to expectations, but since then she has become a conveyer belt of top-class runners.

A mating with Caravaggio produced Tenebrism that was a spectacular winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes before going on to win the Prix Jean Prat as a three-year-old. Her next mating was with Justify and the resulting filly Statuette looked like she could be anything when winning her first two starts as a juvenile only to meet with a setback that ended her racing career.

Learning with every race

That brings us to Henri. The product of a mating with Wootton Bassett, expectations were always going to be sky high for him and he made a winning start to his career in a maiden at the Curragh on Irish Guineas weekend.

Mind, it wasn't a performance that impressed everyone, as he didn't travel all that smoothly and showed plenty of rawness on his way to coming out on top by just a short-head. It may have been the case that Ryan Moore didn't think he was experienced enough for the big stage at that point of his career, as he chose to ride the more hardened Tunbridge Wells in the Railway Stakes a month later.

While Henri Matisse again needed to be cajoled along early, albeit off what was a strong pace, he went through the gears and once he hit full stride in the final furlong he did very well to run down the talented The Strikin Viking by ½-length.

With any doubts about his readiness for the big stage now set aside, Moore was back in the saddle for his latest start in the Futurity Stakes at the Curragh in late August. The step up to seven furlongs seemed sure to suit him, but again he showed what was becoming a recurring tendency to race a little bit behind the bridle, being niggled along to move through the gears. However, once he slid into top gear, his response in the final furlong was very generous.

He had mastered the runner-up Hotazhell and was on his way to an authoritative success when one right-handed slap from Moore coincided with him jinking to his left close home. Given that he had run perfectly straight for even stronger pressure in the Railway, it seems very likely that the jink was caused by something catching his eye rather than being in response to the stick.

Joseph O'Brien runner could run well at a big price

All told, Henri Matisse looks like an excellent prospect and it is difficult to see him being beaten. In terms of the best options for a forecast and a place only bet, the Joseph O'Brien-trained Scorthy Champ shaped very nicely behind Henri Matisse in the Futurity Stakes on what was his first run for over three months following his impressive winning debut at Leopardstown in May.

He seems sure to improve from that and might well be the one to finish second to Henri Matisse at a big price.

Now read more Horse Racing tips and previews here.