Ryan Moore memorably upset the Ballydoyle applecart at the inaugural Longines Irish Champions Weekend in 2014 but the English jockey will be firmly in Aidan O’Brien’s camp on board Luxembourg at Leopardstown on Saturday.
Luxembourg is on course to tackle the French star Vadeni in the €1 million Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes – the most valuable contest of this weekend’s €3.9 million showpiece event – with a lot riding on him stepping up to the Group One mark.
No three-year-old colt from O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team has struck at the top level so far this season in what has been the most disappointing Group One dividend in almost two decades for the hugely powerful Coolmore operation.
Their brightest Classic hope was Luxembourg but injury interrupted his campaign after a promising third in the 2,000 Guineas and the son of Camelot didn’t return to action until last month when landing the Royal Whip at the Curragh.
Now he bids to make up for lost time against perhaps Europe’s outstanding three-year-old, Vadeni, winner of the French Derby in June and subsequently conqueror of the luckless Mishriff in Sandown’s Eclipse.
That pair are set to renew rivalry in the Irish Champion with another French hope, Onesto, also in the mix.
Moore has ridden two of O’Brien’s record 10 previous winners of the race, including St Mark’s Basilica a year ago. However, he famously got the better of Joseph O’Brien in 2014 when pouncing on The Grey Gatsby to beat the 3-10 favourite Australia.
A year later he was appointed number one jockey to Coolmore/Ballydoyle and has enjoyed the longest spell as stable jockey to O’Brien, outlasting illustrious predecessors such as Mick Kinane, Kieren Fallon and Johnny Murtagh.
Moore recently notched up 100 Group One winners in partnership with O’Brien, including both the Ascot and Goodwood Cups this year with Kyprios who is odds-on for Sunday’s Comer Group Irish St Leger at the Curragh.
In commercial terms, though, Coolmore’s focus is firmly on Luxembourg finally starting to live up to his potential.
“Obviously, it hasn’t been a straightforward year for him. He had a lovely two-year-old career, a very good run in the Guineas but unfortunately he wasn’t right after that race,” Moore said on Tuesday.
“He needed his run at the Curragh last month and he got the job done. We’d be hopeful he can come forward from that run. A mile and a quarter at Leopardstown with rain around, which shouldn’t be a problem, should suit.
“Obviously, he will need to improve on what he’s done this year. But I think we’ll see a better version of him on Saturday,” he added.
O’Brien has also left in the trio of Broome, Stone Age and the Oaks winner Tuesday, although the latter two also hold entries at the following day’s Arc trials programme at Longchamp.
Like everyone, though, Moore is acutely aware however of the grim context in which the weekend action takes place. The death of 13-year-old Jack de Bromhead last Saturday has left the racing world stunned and cast a pall over Irish flat racing’s biggest dates of the year.
“It’s just the most terrible news. I’m struggling to get my head around it really,” admitted Moore, whose brother Josh was badly injured in a fall in April and only emerged from hospital in July.
Henry de Bromhead’s team has made eight declarations for Champions Weekend, including the oldest horse among the 13 left in the Irish Leger, Jason The Militant. The veteran is a 33-1 outsider against Kyprios for a race into which Paddy Twomey’s Rosscarbery was supplemented on Tuesday.
The De Bromhead pair Star Girls Aalmal and Honey Girl are also outsiders for Saturday’s Group One Coolmore Matron Stakes but success for any of the trainer’s runners would prove bitterly emotional for many.
Homeless Songs, the brilliant winner of May’s Irish 1,000 Guineas, is on course to return to action in the Matron.
Dermot Weld said on Tuesday he expected it to be the start of a lengthy autumn campaign for the Moyglare Stud-owned filly that could wind up at the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland in November.
Recent heavy rain that has produced an ease in the ground that is in Homeless Songs’ favour for a race in which she is likely to clash with the cross-channel star Saffron Beach. Aidan O’Brien is set to run both Tenebrisim and the supplemented Concert Hall.
Weld’s impressive Galway maiden winner Tahiyra is among 17 in Sunday’s Group One Moyglare. Just nine remain possible starters for the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes on the same Curragh card, including Joseph O’Brien’s supplemented Al Riffa.
There is a bumper entry of 25 horses left in the Al Basti Flying Five that includes a potential runner for Queen Elizabeth II.
King’s Lynn, winner of the Temple Stakes at Haydock in May, is a 16-1 shot in some ante-post lists for Ireland’s sole Group One sprint.
The Andrew Balding-trained horse is part of a strong cross-channel squad left in the race on Tuesday that also includes the Nunthorpe winner Highfield Princess.
Potentially making a reverse journey across the Irish Sea on Saturday are the Ballydoyle pair Emily Dickinson and Bluegrass, as well as Paddy Twomey’s French Claim, for the final classic of the English season, the Cazoo St Leger at Doncaster.
