RACING:AS LISTED races go, tomorrow's Seamus and Rosemary McGrath Memorial Saval Beg Stakes at Leopardstown is quite the doozy, with Group One winners Fame And Glory and Rite Of Passage providing an intriguing pre-Royal Ascot clash.
The Irish stars dominate ante-post betting for next month’s Ascot Gold Cup, with title-holder Rite Of Passage edged slightly in the markets by his rival.
That is hardly surprising since there is no clearer sign of the overwhelming muscle of the Coolmore empire in European racing right now than the diversion of Fame And Glory not just from stud duties but to an attempt to follow in the footsteps of former stable companion Yeats.
The latter carved out a unique position in Gold Cup history by winning the stayers’ crown four years in a row, but he took the long road after injury interrupted his career at a critical stage.
Fame And Glory, though, is a different case again. This, after all, is the horse who chased home Sea The Stars in the 2009 Epsom Derby and in the Irish Champion Stakes, won that year’s Irish Derby and has plundered Group One prizes as a two-, three- and four-year-old.
That is the sort of profile that would have had him rushed to a stallion career with just about any other bloodstock operation on the planet, and even if they persisted with racing he wouldn’t be testing his stamina over a mile-and-six but would be getting ready to defend his Coronation Cup crown at Epsom next week.
The presence, though, of the new boy So You Think at Ballydoyle, as well as another son of Montjeu on a rehabilitation mission, St Nicholas Abbey, means Fame And Glory is being morphed into a stayer and meets the division’s standardbearer tomorrow.
A first start of the campaign at Navan in the Vintage Crop Stakes yielded a win for Fame And Glory but hardly much else as he more or less fell in ahead of another of tomorrow’s rivals, Nebula Storm.
Last year’s Ebor hero Dirar is another runner this weekend, but Rite Of Passage still looks the main danger.
Dermot Weld has won the Saval Beg with some great stayers like Vinnie Roe, Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle, but it was Rite Of Passage who finally broke the trainer’s Gold Cup duck with a thrilling success in 2010.
The classy chestnut hasn’t been seen since, and Weld said: “The race should bring him on leaps and bounds. It should be a great race. Fame And Glory is another world-class horse and an outstanding Group One performer.”
Jamie Spencer is on Fame And Glory again, and the Ballydoyle star has 6lb in hand of his big rival on official ratings, but he is venturing in the specialist territory of Rite Of Passage and it could be very close.
The most valuable event on tomorrow’s card is the Group Three Ballycorus Stakes, where the last two winners of the race, Six Of Hearts and Duff, face their own Group One rival in last year’s Phoenix Stakes victor, Zoffany.
Aidan O’Brien’s colt missed out on last weekend’s Guineas due to a setback and is rated to return with a win here.
However, that rating is on his two-year-old form, and a safer option could be David Wachman’s Imperial Rome, who ran okay in the French Guineas but should relish the drop back to this seven furlongs.
Apache should appreciate an increase in trip for the mile-and-a- half maiden, but Balldoyle’s hope in the juvenile maiden, Secretary Of State, may well have to give best to Jim Bolger’s Teofilo filly, Teolane.
