Presented with a prime Classic opportunity, Magical Lagoon took full advantage and landed Saturday’s Juddmonte Irish Oaks at the Curragh.
In a thrilling finish, the 5-4 favourite got the better of a sustained battle with Aidan O’Brien’s No 1 hope Toy to win by half a length under jockey Shane Foley.
It was a third Curragh Classic for Foley and a second for trainer Jessica Harrington after Alpha Centauri’s 2018 victory in the 1,000 Guineas.
It was a particular relief for Harrington who admitted to being “terrified” with the previous day’s announcement that the original odds-on favourite Emily Upjohn couldn’t travel to the Curragh due to travel problems.
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Suddenly having the big race favourite meant forfeiting the underdog status she says she relishes but is increasingly unfamiliar with.
“It’s good pressure but you still don’t like it,” said Harrington, whose transformation into one of Ireland’s top Flat trainers has been one of the principal features of the racing scene in the last half a dozen years.
Having won almost every big race in the National Hunt sphere, 75-year-old Harrington’s remorseless expansion in the richer international code appears, if anything, to be accelerating.
Saddling a Coolmore-bred Galileo filly to win a major European Classic for Chinese billionaire businessman Zhang Yuesheng can only help that process quicken even more and Magical Lagoon’s own Group One exploits could only be starting.
Harrington is keen to see what improvement there could be as a four-year-old for the sister to King George winner Novellist, but before that a tilt at the Yorkshire Oaks is in the offing.
Having landed Royal Ascot’s Ribblesdale in a tight finish last month, Magical Lagoon’s relish for a battle again came to the fore on Saturday.
“She’s such a game filly and only does as much as she has to do. I kept looking at what was behind her but I knew she’d keep staying. She stayed very well in Ascot. The probably didn’t go as quick as they did in Ascot and she just ran a great race,” said Harrington.
“Shane was in the right position and kept going forward. It’s only her third run this year and I’d say she’ll improve again. She’s in the Yorkshire Oaks and after that I haven’t really made a decision.”
Magical Lagoon’s owner has the financial muscle to satisfy his desire for more top-flight success and has racing interests around the world, including 100 thoroughbreds in Ireland.
Certainly, the 305,000 Guineas Zhang Yuesheng spent to get Magical Lagoon as a yearling from Coolmore looks a bargain, with the bonus of having beaten the seller’s Toy, also a daughter of the prepotent Galileo, who is rapidly closing in on a century of individual Group One winners.
The owner was in Japan on Saturday but his representative underlined how he will be back in Europe for the major yearling sales prepared to invest again.
Foley has had a lengthy association with Zhang Yuesheng and is making the most of his job as No 1 rider to one of the country’s top trainers.
With a 2,000 Guineas on Romanised and a 1,000 on Jet Setting the rider was adding to his own Curragh Classic collection.
Foley described his latest big race success as “massive” and joked about Emily Upjohn’s defection: “I wasn’t crying when she came out!”
Magical Lagoon gave him a first Royal Ascot victory and the jockey added: “It’s why we get up in the mornings. The ambition is to get on good horses in good races.”
Colin Keane had to settle for third in the Classic on Cairde Go Deo and was also pipped a short head in the Group Two Sapphire Stakes on the favourite Mooneista who couldn’t hold Ladies Church’s late thrust.
However, by then, he’d got a boost when it was confirmed he retains the ride on his Irish Derby hero Westover in next Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Keane replaced the in-form Rob Hornby in last month’s Curragh Derby and the spokesman for Westover’s owner, Juddmonte, reported: “There’s no major thinking [behind the decision]. He won on him the last day. He’s three-time champion jockey and we have a very close association with him.
“He’s ridden two Classic winners for us and we have a special arrangement with him that when his first retainer, Ger Lyons, doesn’t use him, we can him have his services.
“He’s available next weekend and Ger has kindly let him off to the horse so he will stay aboard.”
Classic ambitions of his own look in store in the long term for Little Big Bear, who justified cramped 2-5 odds in the Group Three Jebel Ali Anglesey Stakes.
Odds of 14-1 for next year’s 2,000 Guineas were available after the Ballydoyle colt easily accounted for Yosemite Valley by almost five lengths.
It added to his previous victory in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot but Aidan O’Brien doesn’t believe he has a pure sprinter on his hands.
“Interestingly Ryan [Moore] said today he could be a Dewhurst Stakes or a National Stakes horse. Obviously he’s running through the line when he’s saying that. That’s a good sign.
“You’d have to [think he’s a Guineas horse] definitely at the moment. When they feel like they are going to get seven at two, they usually get a mile at three.
“He could obviously come back here for the Phoenix Stakes, that would be the plan and that’s what we were thinking coming here today. Hopefully it everything is well, that’s what we’d love to do.”
Earlier there were 20-1 Guineas quotes for another O’Brien juvenile following Hans Andersen’s smooth maiden victory.
The son of Frankel, a 450,000 Guineas purchase, had almost two lengths in hands of the fast-finishing newcomer Al Riffa at the line.
A step up to the Group Two Futurity back at HQ could be next for Hans Andersen.
There was a cross-channel winner of the Scurry Handicap when the John Quinn-trained Mr Wagyu edged out Big Gossey by a head.
