With all eyes on this weekend’s opening 2023 classics in Newmarket, Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team had mixed fortunes at the Curragh’s Bank Holiday Monday fixture.
Jockey Seamus Heffernan enjoyed a listed race double on His Majesty and Paddington but Luxembourg’s comeback proved underwhelming in the featured Coolmore Mooresbridge Stakes.
Last season’s Irish Champion Stakes winner started a 10-11 favourite for the Group Two but looked beaten under Wayne Lordan when briefly hampered outside the furlong pole.
By then the 12-1 winner Visualisation was in command and ultimately proved a length and a half too good for Layfayette. Luxembourg ran on home to take fifth.
The bird-shaped obsession that drives James Crombie, one of Ireland’s best sports photographers
Vintage Durkan clash in prospect at star studded ‘Premiere Weekend’ in Punchestown
Irish star Auguste Rodin to receive historic retirement ceremony after his final race in Japan Cup
Racing’s reaction to coverage of Cheltenham deaths shows worrying insecurity about nature of the sport
Injury curtailed Luxembourg’s classic career in 2022 but it’s all ahead of his stable companions Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear who dominate betting for Saturday’s QIPCO 2,000 Guineas.
They represent a typically strong hand for O’Brien who is chasing an 11th success in the colts classic. He has Meditate in the mix too for an eighth 1,000 Guineas after Monday’s latest acceptance stage.
She is likely to renew rivalry with her Moyglare conqueror Tahiyra who was given a green light for Sunday’s classic by Dermot Weld.
“She’s a filly that hasn’t really grown from two to three but I’m happy and I think she has progressed nicely over the last two weeks and the present thought is we will let her take her chance,” reported Weld.
A particularly interested observer at HQ on Monday was Ryan Moore who sat out the racing due to suspension but will ride both Ausguste Rodin and Little Big Bear in vital workouts in Ballydoyle tomorrow morning.
“So far so good, everything has gone good so far. At the moment, both are on the way,” O’Brien confirmed before suggesting Moore will wind up on Auguste Rodin.
“Obviously Ryan won’t decide that until he sees everything. I would imagine, at the moment, he’s going to ride Auguste, but that’s not in stone,” he added.
O’Brien was far from downbeat about Luxembourg’s defeat and predicted he will “come on tonnes” for the race.
“The plan was to come here and then back for the Tattersalls so that’s what we’ll do. It wasn’t a fast run race, but he ran a lovely race and will come on plenty for it,” he said.
Luxembourg apart, there was a further confidence boost on Monday when Greenland emerged on top in one of France’s top Derby trials, the Prix Greffulhe, at Saint Cloud.
Christophe Soumillon did the steering in the Paris Group Three and recommended a return in June for the Prix Du Jockey Club.
That Chantilly classic might feature on Paddington’s own radar after his smooth Tetrarch Stakes success.
The Siyouni colt had little difficulty following up his Madrid Handicap victory in March and O’Brien said: “He’d have the option of going to the French Guineas or the Irish Guineas and then he could be a French Derby horse after that.
“He handles the ground (soft) well, he’s by Siyouni out of a Montjeu mare so should handle it on both sides.”
For His Majesty, and many others on Ballydoyle’s juvenile team, the immediate priority is Ascot.
Along with his stablemate Unquestionable he made his debut in a Listed First Flier Stakes reduced by a significant number of non-runners.
“We’ve a lot of horses to run and we’re trying to get them out and get experience into them,” O’Brien said after His Majesty learned enough late to beat Valiant Force by three parts of a length.
Classic anticipation meant Joseph O’Brien’s big-race double got comparatively overlooked as Visualisation’s victory had been preceded by Honey Girl impressing in the Group Three Athasi.
Previously trained by Henry de Bromhead, Honey Girl put three and a half lengths between herself and stable companion Agartha under jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle.
“Her owners are Australian and they are going to Ascot so there is a fair chance she’ll turn up there somewhere.
“But she’ll probably be at her best in the spring and autumn when she has a bit of juice in the ground,” Joseph O’Brien said.
Run Forrest Run’s late lunge to land the finale gave classic winning jockey Micky Fenton a first success as a trainer.
Now based near Mallow in Co Cork, the 51-year-old who rode Speciosa to win the 1,000 Guineas in 2006, saddled the 8-1 winner who got up in the final stride under Jamie Powell.
