Aidan O’Brien plugged a rare gap in his Group One CV on Sunday when Tenebrism scored in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.
Out of luck in a pair of Grade One races in New York on Saturday, Ryan Moore got the perfect reward for his overnight trans-Atlantic dash, guiding Tenebrism to a decisive success in the €400,000 highlight.
The 11-2 shot had a 1¼ lengths in hand of English outsider Light Infantry at the line with Lusail in third.
The other Irish hope, Sheila Lavery’s New Energy, failed to land a blow and finished seventh.
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On the back of Laws Of Indices winning a year ago, and Night Alert winning for Vincent O’Brien in 1980, Tenebrism became just a third Irish-trained winner of the historic race.
The daughter of Caravaggio, winner last year of the Cheveley Park Stakes, was cut to 14-1 by some firms for Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes, a race where she could clash with the world’s top-rated performer, Baaeed.
“She’s always shown plenty. She won the Cheveley Park on her second start over six furlongs. She went to Newmarket for the Guineas and the ground was very fast that day. She got banged around and didn’t get into any kind of rhythm,” said Moore.
“She ran a good race at Ascot [fourth in Coronation Stakes] when she was still a little green and struggled around the bend and finished off real well.
“It was nice to come back to a level track and a nice bit of ground. She had to wait for a gap but as soon as she got a little bit of room, she was like a motorbike and accelerated straight through it.”
The Ballydoyle team were out luck in both of Saturday night’s top-flight contests in New York.
Stone Age could manage only third to the locally trained 26-1 outsider Classic Causeway in the $1 million Belmont Derby.
Patient tactics were chosen on Stone Age who had previously raced prominently and they didn’t pay off as the winner enjoyed a mostly uncontested lead, staying on to beat Godolphin’s Nations Pride with the Irish hope only third.
Concert Hall was fourth in the $700,000 Belmont Oaks as Godolphin again had to settle for second as With The Moonlight was run down close home by the local filly McKulick.
Killarney July festival
There will be more valuable and more prestigious races run during this week’s Killarney July festival but perhaps the most significant one will prove to be the very first one on Monday.
The two-year-old maiden was won by the subsequent Epsom Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck in 2018 while last year it fell to this season’s Irish Derby runner up Piz Badile.
Killarney’s growing reputation as a nursery for future champions was underlined again 12 months ago when Luxembourg made a winning debut on Day Three of the festival.
That came on the back of another Derby hero Wings Of Eagles breaking his maiden here at the 2016 August meeting while no less than the Breeders Cup winner Iridessa won her very first race at 20-1 a couple of years later.
Luxembourg’s full brother Hiawatha, a €1.2 million Orby sale purchase, is the standout entry in Monday’s contest.
La Petite Coco, winner of last month’s Pretty Polly Stakes, landed a conditions event on this card a year ago.
Her stable companion Spasiba tries to do the same this time on the back of an impressive victory at Roscommon last time.
Trainer Paddy Twomey appears to favour next month’s Yorkshire Oaks for La Petite Coco’s next target.
“She’s in the Nassau but the preference would be the Yorkshire Oaks,” he reported on Sunday.
