A WINTER of hard work paid off in Classic style on a sun-baked Curragh yesterday as Bethrah landed a thrilling success for Dermot Weld (his 15th domestic Classic) and Pat Smullen in the Etihad Airways Irish 1,000 Guineas.
On a day when the 2009 Irish Derby hero Fame And Glory was also in Group One-winning form in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, and his younger stable companion, Jan Vermeer, confirmed himself a prime Derby candidate, it was the Classic centrepiece that ended up as something of a handicapper’s dream.
A line of five fillies flashed past the post with less than a half length between them but after a troublesome passage through the race it was Smullen who managed to secure the decisive head margin on the 16 to 1 shot Bethrah.
It was a second win in the race for Smullen, a fourth for Weld and those stable staff who work daily at the trainer’s Rosewell House just a few hundred yards away from the track could take more than a little credit too.
Bethrah’s problems with starting stalls were obvious on her sole start as a two-year-old and it was that which concentrated the minds of the Weld team for months afterwards. A maiden win at Limerick in April yielded immediate results and the Sheikh Hamdan-owned filly followed up in a Group Three Trial at Leopardstown. “She used to have a problem at the start but a lot of work has gone into overcoming that and you could see today what a progressive filly she is,” Weld said afterwards. “I could see her stepping up to a mile and a quarter. She needed every inch of the Curragh mile there.”
That was hardly an exaggeration as Smullen steered a tortuous route to the rail which saw Bethrah only edge Godolphin’s Anna Salai in the final strides. A neck back in third was the favourite Music Show, with Aidan O’Brien’s pair Remember When and Lillie Langtry following them home. “That was a fair performance because I got stopped once or twice in my run,” said Smullen after securing his seventh domestic Classic. “But it’s not a surprise. We always thought she was very good.”
Aidan O’Brien may have been out of luck in the Classic but that apart it was an immensely encouraging day for the champion trainer. Fame And Glory did, as generally expected, land the Tattersalls, but it was the smoothness of his seven-length defeat of Recharge that will worry his opposition in the Coronation Cup at Epsom in 12 days’ time. “He’s an amazing horse. He has been coming forward with each run but he is really there now,” O’Brien said of a colt who is now as low as 5 to 1 favourite to follow in the Arc footsteps of his old rival, Sea The Stars.
Whether or not, Fame And Glory will be joined on the Epsom plane from Ballydoyle by Jan Vermeer will dominate column inches for the coming week after the latter’s immensely encouraging comeback in the Gallinule Stakes.
Jan Vermeer conceded weight all round with such aplomb that Johnny Murtagh looked afterwards as if his Epsom Derby choice, which had been St Nicholas Abbey, may not be so straight-forward anymore.
O’Brien currently has the first four in the Epsom betting and Jan Vermmer is as low as 5 to 1 second favourite despite O’Brien not ruling out a switch to the French Derby instead. “We will have to talk to Johnny and the lads. In an ideal world you’d love to divide them all up. But he was impressive there and he should come on a lot for it,” he said.
