Donn McClean reflects on Irish Champions Weekend featuring victories for Magical and Thunder Moon
by Donn McCleanDonn McClean pores over the action from Irish Champions Weekend as Magical underlined her star credentials and Thunder Moon entered the Classic picture.
Well, there is no point in doing something and expecting a different outcome to the one you got the last time you did the same thing, the same way.
You have to tweak things, Aidan O’Brien said. Squeeze things. The champion trainer tweaked things on Saturday, and the result was, well, Magical.
The Galileo mare had three lengths to make up with Ghaiyyath on their Juddmonte International running, when the Godolphin horse soloed in front and Magical sat back, tried to catch him in the home straight. On Saturday at Leopardstown, in the Irish Champion Stakes, the feature race of the eponymous weekend, there was no sitting back. She sat up on his girth from flagfall, up on his withers, a persistent presence for nine and a half of the 10 furlongs. Rider Seamie Heffernan increased the intensity of her challenge as they straightened up for home, she drew level as they raced to the furlong pole, and she forged ahead deep inside the final 150 yards.
If there had been a crowd there, it would have been rafter-raising.
Perhaps Ghaiyyath wasn’t at his best, but perhaps he wasn’t allowed to be at his best. In any duel, in any match, in any game, you can only be as good as your opponent allows you to be. And on Saturday, Magical was very, very good.
Just shows you, the wisdom of keeping her in training as a five-year-old, her date with No Nay Never cancelled or perhaps just postponed, because the realisation grew that there was more to be achieved on the racecourse. And there was, three more Group 1s so far, a Pretty Polly Stakes, another Tattersalls Gold Cup and now another Irish Champion Stakes.
Magical is only the second horse to win back-to-back renewals of the Irish Champion Stakes in the history of the race. And Aidan O’Brien is the only trainer to have won nine renewals, this one coming 20 years after he won his first with Giant’s Causeway.
Options for Magical between now and the end of the season are wide and varied. There is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Prix de l’Opera and the Champion Stakes (again) and the Breeders’ Cup, or some combination thereof. She does stay a mile and a half, she won the Group 1 Fillies & Mares Stakes on British Champions Day at Ascot as a three-year-old over that trip, and she would be a fascinating contender in the Arc. But it may be that she is at her absolute best when she is ridden aggressively like this over 10 furlongs. She would take some beating again in the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
Saturday was also a massive day for Johnny Murtagh, a Group 1-winning day, his first as a trainer. And it has been some training performance, to bring Champers Elysees through the ranks, from an 86-rated filly in June to a Group 1-winning filly in September.
The Elzaam filly was a good juvenile last year, but her rate of progression this season under Murtagh’s care has been extraordinary. Winner of a handicap on her debut this term on fast ground at The Curragh, she was seriously impressive in winning a listed race at the Galway Festival in July on easy ground.
On her final run before Saturday, she won the Group 3 Fairy Bridge Stakes, re-routed from Tipperary to Gowran Park, when she beat a talented and progressive filly in Pearls Galore, with the pair of them coming clear of their rivals. She probably had to win that if she was going to justify her place in the line-up for Saturday’s Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes. And, under a superb patient ride from Colin Keane, she was delivered with a powerful finish down the outside to get the better of Irish Guineas winner Peaceful and Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes winner Fancy Blue – the form is rock solid – with her stable companion Know It All also running a big race to finish fourth.
It was a milestone weekend for Johnny Murtagh, on the final circuit in a milestone season. He had several horses run big races in defeat – including Measure Of Magic in the Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster on Friday – and he rounded off the weekend by winning the finale at The Curragh on Sunday, the ‘Northfields’ Handicap, with Sonnyboyliston, who won impressively under Billy Lee off a mark of 99, and could easily make the jump now into listed or Group company.
Sunday was also a milestone day for trainer Dermot Weld, in a career that is full to the brim with milestones, with Tarnawa winning the Prix Vermeille at ParisLongchamp and, an hour later, Search For A Song winning the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at The Curragh.
Search For A Song put up a remarkable performance to win the Irish Leger last year, a three-year-old filly taking on tough and top class older stayers, and racing far too freely through the early stages of the race. She hadn’t shown that level of form in three attempts this term, but there was mitigation – two of those runs were over 10 furlongs, surely an inadequate test, and she stumbled on the first bend in the Munster Oaks at Cork in the other, after which Oisin Orr wisely pulled her up.
She settled well this time, Oisin Orr had her switched off at the back of the field from early. She made her ground easily through her field in the home straight, and she stayed on strongly to get the better of Ebor winner Fujaira Prince. It was an across-the-seas Group 1 double for Dermot Weld, and a ninth Irish St Leger, which equals Vincent O’Brien’s record, and it was a first Group 1 win for last season’s joint-champion apprentice Oisin Orr.
The juvenile races were intriguing. Thunder Moon was seriously impressive in winning the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes. It all got very tight on the run to the furlong marker, and Declan McDonogh had to check the Zoffany colt before he got into the clear but, once he did, he showed a searing turn of foot that took him past Master Of The Seas and home by a length and a half from the staying-on Wembley.
Joseph O’Brien’s colt had been impressive too in winning his maiden on his racecourse debut, but this was a big step up in class from a maiden, taking on the Phoenix Stakes winner and the Superlative Stakes winner, as well as several rivals who were similarly unexposed. And he did really well to win, given that he had to check his momentum at a crucial stage of the race. He should get a mile too on pedigree. He is a really exciting colt.
The Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes saw the Donnacha O’Brien-trained Shale and the Joseph O’Brien-trained Pretty Gorgeous renew their rivalry. It was one each, Shale won the Silver Flash Stakes, Pretty Gorgeous won the Debutante Stakes, and the pair of them had the Moyglare between them too from the furlong pole, Shale going for home and Pretty Gorgeous trying to run her down.
In the end, Shale prevailed. She is tough, she found lots for pressure and she stayed on strongly for Ryan Moore all the way to the line. In so doing, she provided Donnacha O’Brien with his first domestic Group 1 win – to go with Fancy Blue’s wins at the top level in Britain and France – in the race in which he rode his first Group 1 winner in 2016, Intricately, who was also Joseph O’Brien’s first Group 1 winner as a trainer.
Cadillac was also impressive in winning the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardtown on Saturday. Under a characteristically no-nonsense ride from Shane Foley, Jessica Harrington’s colt moved up nicely on the outside of leadear Van Gogh as they straightened up for home, and he kept on strongly to pull three and a half lengths of Van Gogh, who in turn finished nicely clear of the rest.
This was just the Lope De Vega colt’s third run, he won his maiden by nine lengths and he was just beaten by McSwiney in the Group 2 Futurity Stakes, when the soft ground didn’t play to his strengths. He isn’t overly big in terms of stature, but he is big on talent and he would be of interest in a Group 1 race now. The Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp over a mile on Arc day could be a good target for him.
Shane Foley and Jessica Harrington also teamed up to land the Group 2 Moyglare ‘Jewels’ Blandford Stakes with Cayenne Pepper at The Curragh on Sunday. This was much more like it from the Australia filly. Highly regarded as a juvenile last year, when she won the Group 3 Flame Of Tara Stakes, she had finished second in all three runs this season before Saturday. Possibly beaten for stamina by Even So in the Irish Oaks, and perhaps again by Tarnawa in the Give Thanks Stakes, she may have found her métier now over 10 furlongs.
Ridden forward from flagfall by Shane Foley, she tracked early leader Amma Grace all the way around into the home straight and, when her rider asked her to go on and win her race, the response was impressive. She kept on strongly all the way to the line to come clear of her rivals. She has options now, but the Prix de l’Opera would be a good target for her, a race in which three-year-olds have prevailed in five of the last six years.
The Aidan O’Brien-trained Tiger Moth was impressive at Leopardstown on Saturday in winning the Group 3 Paddy Power ‘Is It 2021 Yet?’ Stakes over a mile and a half under Ryan Moore, making light of a two-and-a-half-month absence, while the Ken Condon-trained Could Be King stayed on strongly down the outside under Billy Lee to defy top weight in the ‘Sovereign Path’ Handicap over seven furlongs. He deserves another shot at a listed race or a Group 3 race now.
As does the Jim Bolger-trained Halimi, who stayed on well for Kevin Manning to land the ‘Petingo’ Handicap at Leopardstown on Saturday off a mark of 96, perhaps stepped up again in trip, while Safe Voyage has surely earned another go at a Group 1 race, following his game victory under Colin Keane in the Group 2 Clipper Logistics Boomerang Mile. Remarkable for a seven-year-old who has raced 28 times, John Quinn’s horse appears to be in the form of his life.
The raiding party also landed the three sprints at The Curragh on Sunday, Glass Slippers responding well to Tom Eaves’ urgings to get up on the far side in the Group 1 Derrinstown Stud Flying Five and prevail by a half a length from Keep Busy – Kevin Ryan’s filly will be a big player again in the Prix de l’Abbaye – while Richard Fahey bagged a double, both ridden by Colin Keane, Mr Lupton in the ‘Bold Lad’ Handicap, and Shark Two One, who just held on from the fast-finishing Star Of Orion in the Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sale Stakes.