Auguste Rodin’s Irish Derby victory marred by fatal injury to stable mate San Antonio

Auguste Rodin flirted with disaster before securing a bittersweet success in Sunday’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh.

A landmark 100th European classic victory for Aidan O’Brien was marred when Auguste Rodin’s stable companion San Antonio suffered fatal injuries in the race.

Jockey Wayne Lordan got unshipped from the colt half a mile from the finish when San Antonio fractured his right front leg.

Lordan was reportedly concussed before being taken to Tallaght hospital for further assessment although he was talking and moving all limbs. His mount had to be euthanised.

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It was grim viewing for a worldwide TV audience and didn’t help Auguste Rodin’s chance to become the 19th horse to complete the Epsom-Curragh Derby double.

In pursuit of his first Irish Derby win, jockey Ryan Moore had to check the 4-11 favourite who briefly made contact with the stricken San Antonio as the field thundered down the hill to the straight.

Moore admitted to getting “a fright” and was forced to regather Auguste Rodin who eventually overhauled another stable companion, the 33-1 shot Adelaide River.

There was a length-and-a-half between the pair at the line with another pair of O’Brien outsiders, Covent Garden and Peking Opera next home.

“It’s a terrible thing it happened and I’m so sorry for everyone,” O’Brien said.

“When things go wrong in any sport after going 75 per cent of the way, when the pressure is really coming on, that’s when devastating stuff can happen, and it does happen. But the main thing is Wayne is okay,” he added.

If Auguste Rodin’s performance was visually underwhelming, it nevertheless was enough to give his record-breaking trainer a 15th Irish Derby.

There was a neat symmetry too to how Ireland’s premier classic took O’Brien to a century of European classics. His Irish Derby haul is the single biggest contributor to a once scarcely imaginable tally.

They comprise 49 Curragh classics, 42 in England, and nine in France. He has won every one of the classic races in those countries, although typically he was keen to attribute that success to “teamwork”.

It was a different kind of landmark for Moore who struck in the Irish Derby at the 11th time of asking to complete his collection of classics in Ireland and England.

“I’ve been coming here a long time and I’ve had a lot of disappointments in this race. Aidan said to me, ‘Mick [Kinane] never won his first Irish Derby until he had Galileo’. So maybe we just need a good horse to get it done. I’m lucky to get chances, and finally I’ve taken one,” the Englishman said.

It was the first Derby run on a Sunday since 2011 and the official attendance of 10,897 was marginally down on last year’s 11,242.

However, an overall attendance of 23,653 over the Derby festival’s three days was a 25 per cent increase on 2022. It included a 7,216 crowd for Saturday’s Pretty Polly Stakes crowd.

“There has been a big increase on the Friday and Saturday figures and I’m delighted with that,” said Curragh chief executive Brian Kavanagh.