Fears the power of Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle yard might dull day two of the €4.25 million ‘Longines Irish Champions Weekend’ Group One action with a certain predictability were obliterated in style by Frankie Dettori and Willie Mullins who upset the odds with Wicklow Brave in the four-runner Palmerstown House Irish St Leger at the Curragh.
A race which had looked little more than a penalty-kick for O’Brien’s 1/7 favourite Order Of St George instead provided a rapturously received first top-flight flat victory for Mullins – jump racing’s dominant trainer – and the Italian superstar jockey who gave another masterclass from the front on the 11/1 winner.
It was 13 years since Dettori secured a memorable Curragh classic win for Mullins’s father, Paddy, on board Vintage Tipple in the Irish Oaks and on the advice of jump racing’s champion Ruby Walsh, a plan was hatched to make all the running, a plan that saw Order Of St George struggle up the straight and ultimately fail by half a length.
“We’ve been holding him up all his life but I spoke to Ruby and he said why not make the running. So I discussed it with Frankie and he was brilliant – as he always is,” said Mullins who confirmed a tilt at the Melbourne Cup is next for Wicklow Brave, a race Max Dynamite finished runner-up in last year.
Free rein
If Dettori memorably didn’t distinguish himself on that occasion, he was superb here and said: “Willie gave me free rein and said do your stuff. It’s a surprise but a classic win is always great. Willie is a top man. His horses are always in good nick. We tried something different and it worked out.”
A day earlier Ballydoyle’s English Leger favourite Idaho had unshipped his jockey in the straight, after which O’Brien reminded everyone how dangerous presumption can be in racing.
So it proved again at the Curragh, but if Order Of St George’s defeat left the champion trainer with a maelstrom of emotions they were nothing compared to how he felt earlier after being edged out of Moyglare Stud Stakes success by his sons, Joseph and Donnacha.
The O’Brien boys combined to win with the 25/1 winner Intricately who short-headed Hydrangea, a result that gave 23-year-old Joseph a first Group One in his first season with a training licence, and Donnacha (18) a first top-flight success as a jockey.
“This means the world to me,” said Joseph, the former dual champion jockey. “It’s Donnacha’s first Group One and my mum [Annemarie O’Brien] bred her. Training them is 10 times better; you’re a lot more involved with each individual horse.”
The proud father said: “I can’t describe the feeling. I shouldn’t be saying it but I was hoping our filly hadn’t put her head in front. It’s hard to win Group Ones. Where Joseph is training we trained a lot of winners but never a Group One winner or anything close to it.”
He’s made up for it since and Churchill was the latest, smoothly landing the Goffs National Stakes from the Dettori- ridden Mehmas and jumping to the top of next year’s classic betting. Remarkably, he was the sole winning favourite over ‘Champions Weekend’.
If Wicklow Brave’s victory caught the public’s imagination, the on-course Sunday attendance still came to just 9,255, a drop of over a thousand on last year, contributing further to a sense that the Curragh-leg of ‘Champions Weekend’ remains something of a poor relation.
Precise indicator
It’s hardly the Curragh’s fault that two of their headline races are for juveniles, or that their highlight produced just four runners. Considering almost 30,000 are expected at Listowel on Friday, crowd figures are hardly a precise indicator either.
But most sporting events aim to build towards a climax so it could be argued Irish racing’s showcase event could benefit from a ‘flip-flop’ of days, putting Leopardstown on Sunday instead since it possesses the jewel in the ‘Champions Weekend’ crown.
The French star Almanzor beat seven other proven Group One winners in Saturday evening’s QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes, a boost to the international prestige of the weekend itself which occurred in front of a 14,550 crowd, the highest in the three years of ‘Champions Weekend’ at the Dublin track.
The winner was a boost to the organisers international ambitions which now appear to be turning to the Far East.
“We’ve been building relationships with the JRA [Japanese Racing Association] and I think that’s the next step in terms of internationalisation – having a Japanese runner here,” said Leopardstown’s chief executive Pat Keogh.
