Aidan O'Brien's Epsom Derby winner Serpentine failed to fire in Sunday's Grand Prix de Paris but it was his stable companion Mogul who finally delivered at Group One level instead.
Ryan Moore's pick from the Ballydoyle team in July's Derby was only sixth behind Serpentine on that occasion but emulated his full brother Japan by landing the Longhcamp highlight in good style.
This time there was no repeat of the front-running tactics employed by Serpentine at Epsom and it was another O’Brien runner, Nobel Prize, who cut out the running.
Serpentine failed to pick up in the straight and instead Mogul who made the most of a dream run up the rail under top French rider Pierre-Charles Boudot to win decisively at 6-1.
If the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was still in O’Brien’s calculations for Serpentine afterwards then the world appears to be Mogul’s oyster ahead of the autumn international campaign.
Delighted
“We’re delighted with him. We always felt he was only coming and I’ve been saying so for a while.
“He showed so much speed that we felt maybe dropping to a mile and a quarter might be the right thing to do so we said today to ride him for speed and take your time on him,” O’Brien said from the Curragh.
"Mogul is in Australia [Cox Plate] and he could go to America of it we decide to step back he could go for the Champion Stakes or maybe Hong Kong. There's a lot of options for him," he added.
If the focus in Ireland was on the second leg of Champions Weekend at the Curragh, there was enough left over on Sunday's "Arc Trials" programme for Irish interests to dominate.
O'Brien's 2019 Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck won his first race since Epsom in the Prix Foy, getting the better of a tactical affair with the star stayer, Stradivarius.
He too could be on his travels internationally although it may be back to Longchamp in three weeks’ times for Dermot Weld’s Tarnawa who produced a career best performance in the Group One Prix Vermeille.
The Aga Khan-owned filly was three lengths too good for the highly touted Raabihah under top local rider Christophe Soumillon.
Both the Arc and the Prix de l’Opera appear to be under consideration for the Irish filly.
