IRISH LEGER PREVIEW:IF LAST weekend was all about the exciting new legend that is Sea The Stars, then today's Irish Field St Leger at the Curragh has Yeats, the horse that does exactly what it says on the tin.
In the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ of top-class flat racing, Yeats stands out as an original: eight years old now and possibly having his last race in Ireland, the legendary stayer is having his 25th career start in his seventh season racing.
It’s an almost unprecedented length of time for a top-flight performer on the flat. It’s hard to credit that when he won his sole two-year-old start at the Curragh, he was ridden by Mick Kinane, then Ballydoyle’s number one jockey.
Since then Yeats has recovered from an injury bad enough to have scuppered what many believed was his Derby-winning destiny and morphed into one of the great stayers of the modern era.
That historic fourth Ascot Gold Cup success last June came against a backdrop when many reckoned he was old news, but once again doubts of the old horses durability were kicked back to reality.
Today he has his fourth start in an Irish Leger. The first was a relatively inauspicious fourth to Collier Hill in 2005. A year later Yeats was runner-up to Kastoria before he finally cracked the Leger code in 2007. He missed out last year but more than made up for that by winning French version, the Prix-Royal Oak.
That same race could yet turn out to be Yeats’ swansong at Longchamp next month but first of all he faces seven opponents today with no doubt some still willing to bet that his star has to start fading sometime.
Sure enough a field that includes Godolphin’s multiple Group One winner Schiaparelli, the current Melbourne Cup favourite, Profound Beauty, and an in-form stable companion of Sea The Stars, Alandi, means Yeats is hardly in for a stroll this afternoon.
Most crucially of all there is also soft ground to be factored in. But even with all that Yeats still looks a very worthy favourite.
We are after all talking about a horse that in yesterday’s World Thoroughbred Rankings is officially rated on 122 the joint-12th best racehorse on the globe right now.
Schiaparelli may have Group Ones to his name in Italy and Germany but he doesn’t come near a mark of 122. Neither do the Irish duo of Profound Beauty and Alandi.
The latter has prompted Mick Kinane to forsake the ride on Mourayan at Doncaster and comes here on the back of a five-length win on Fairyhouse. The softer the ground the better he will like it but there still looks to a gulf in pure class.
“Yeats has loads of ability still,” said Seamus Heffernan yesterday, stepping in to replace Johnny Murtagh who is going in the opposite direction to Kinane and will be at Doncaster.
“I am sure there will be people going to the Curragh especially to see him and I hope he won’t let them down.”
As for the going, Aidan O’Brien reported: “Everyone knows he prefers fast going but he goes on soft. It just makes him run a little more lazy.”
However, Yeats, the class act of the 2009 Leger, can still get the job done and secure his 16th victory.
Murtagh’s decision to go to Doncaster and ride Changingoftheguard can pay off with a Group One double for Heffernan as Alfred Nobel looks an obvious call for the Ladbrokes Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.
The Danehill Dancer colt is attempting to follow in the footsteps of previous Ballydoyle horses, George Washington, One Cool Cat and Mastercraftsman last year, who have completed the Phoenix-National double.
Crucially Alfred Nobel is a winner on extremes of going and that may be decisive against the impressive course maiden winner Kingsfort and Chabal who is already as low as 20 to 1 for next year’s Derby after winning at Leopardstown last weekend.
Chinese White will be a strong fancy for the Group Two Blandford Stakes after winning impressively on the course last time. However, she is up against a proven Group One winner in Lady Marian who showed something like her old form when beaten a short head in a Deauville Group One last month.
Mister Tee finally got off the mark after some very smart placed efforts at Dundalk on Tuesday. With that confidence booster under his belt, Ger Lyons’s smart two-year-old can deliver a quick follow-up in the Listed Blenheim Stakes.
