Oscar Schindler wrapped up the best domestic classic season for Ireland in 33 years when completing a hometrained clean sweep in Saturday's Jefferson Smurfit Memorial Irish St Leger at the Curragh.
Not since 1964, the year of Santa Claus, had Irish-trained horses won all five Irish classics and those hoping for a repeat had few worries once Kevin Prendergast's strapping chestnut ranged up between the English pair, Whitewater Affair and Perisan Punch, early in the straight.
From there, Oscar Schindler only had to be pushed out by veteran jockey Stephen Craine, picking up his second classic of the year after Classic Park's 1,000 Guineas, to win by two lengths and set himself for an attempt at trying to improve on last year's unlucky third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
An exultant Craine had little doubt that it's possible and beamed: "Oscar is a better horse this year. I deliberately went between horses early in the straight because I wanted him to race but in the final furlong he wasn't doing too much in front. It might have looked as if he was laughing at the second horse but I think he was laughing at me!"
If Oscar Schindler was indeed laughing, it was only one of many emotions that swept through the Curragh winners' enclosure. The horse's owner, Ollie Lehane, seriously ill with motor neuron disease, provoked widespread applause as he accepted the winning trophy. Oscar Schindler's success clearly delighted him.
"Winning this time feels twice as good as it did last year and is the tonic I needed. We are now going to Paris and then the Breeders Cup. I would love to have done that last year instead of going to the Melbourne Cup but things did not work out that way," Lehane said.
He was referring to last November's abortive attempt at trying to emulate Vintage Crop in Australia and Prendergast also ruled out another Antipodean adventure.
"The horse will definitely go for the Arc and won't be going back to the Melbourne Cup. Mind you that might change if some Australian wants to buy him! A lot of my horses were sick when Oscar Schindler went to Epsom for the Coronation Cup and we had to give him a long break. But he trained well from last month and I think he can improve again," Prendergast, winning the Leger for the fourth time, declared.
Taking that into account, William Hill bookmakers now make Oscar Schindler as low as 16/1 for the Arc although Corals go 20/1, from 33/1, behind their star-studded trio of joint favourites, Pilsudski, Helissio and Peintre Celebre.
Persian Punch ran on very gamely to be second under John Murtagh who was a late replacement for George Duffield who is currently laid low with measles. "He kept plugging away considering he was off the bridle after going a mile," Murtagh said and David Elsworth's stayer will next go for Longchamp's Prix du Cadran.
However, Classic Cliche, who started joint favourite with Oscar Schindler, was a huge disappointment and trailed in a distance behind in last and he has now been retired. "He was gone seven furlongs out but I can't see anything wrong with him," said the Godolphin spokesman, Simon Chrisford, an opinion that was confirmed when the Turf Club veterinary officer found Classic Cliche to be "postrace normal".
Duffield had further reason to curse his luck when his gallant old partner Wizard King notched up career win number 17 in the Aon MacDonagh Boland Stakes with the assistance of Pat Shanahan in the saddle.
"He was the best jockey available as far as I was concerned and he gave him a lovely ride," said Wizard King's trainer, Sir Mark Prescott. There was a stewards' inquiry into possible interference with the runner-up, Snow Kid but the video showed that Frankie Dettori's whip had accidentally flicked Wizard King on the head causing the colt to jink right. Liam Browne trained his second big handicap winner of the season, after Wray's McDonogh win at Galway, when Orange Grouse battled on well under apprentice Jamie Spencer to win the £25,000 Paribas Bank Handicap.
Browne had been thinking of running the filly in the Concorde Stakes at Tipperary but when told that that was also the target for Wizard King, he said: "In that case we may come back here for a Listed race instead."
