RACING:AIDAN O'BRIEN'S ex-Australian star So You Think looks to have had another top Irish Group One prize put on a plate for him with just five possible opponents lined up to take him on in Saturday evening's Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.
The €750,000 feature is the centrepiece of a prestigious top-flight card worth over €1.2 million in total but a race that in the past helped cement the reputations of legendary names such as Sea The Stars and Daylami this time looks like turning into a solo show.
Of the other five entries left in the race after yesterday’s forfeit stage, both Roderic O’Connor and Recital are also trained at Ballydoyle, while Famous Name and Dunboyne Express have never won past Group Three level.
The sole cross-channel hope is last year’s dual-Oaks heroine Snow Fairy but she was almost 10 lengths behind So You Think when the Aussie runner got the better of a memorable duel with Workforce in Sandown’s Eclipse at the start of July.
Over the weekend, O’Brien confirmed So You Think as an intended starter and added: “Roderic is in there as well as a possible runner.”
O’Brien is targeting a seventh win in a race that has been consistently rated the best run in Ireland by international handicappers.
Not surprisingly, bookmaker reaction has been to make So You Think a raging hot 1-3 favourite, with Paddy Power rating Snow Fairy a 5-1 shot to upset the odds.
Ground conditions at Leopardstown yesterday were “good to firm” and the big Group races will be run on a separate outer course.
The Champion Stakes will have an evening start for the first time and is scheduled to be off at 6.45.
The day’s other Group One, the €190,000 Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Matron Stakes over a mile in which O’Brien’s four-time Group One winner Misty For Me has been installed ante-post favourite.
A total of 13 remain in the Matron, including two French possibles. One of them is Freddie Head’s Prix Maurice De Gheest winner Moonlight Cloud while Robert Collet’s Glorious Sight ran third in June’s French Oaks at Chantilly.
Tommy Stack’s Royal Ascot winner Lolly For Dolly is also being aimed at the Matron while Emulous could represent the all-conquering Juddmonte team.
Bewitched back to best for Haydock
IT IS nearly 40 years since an Irish-trained horse last won Haydock’s Group One Betfred Sprint Cup but Bewitched is set to try and bridge that gap. Abergwaun was trained by Vincent O’Brien to land the six-furlong highlight in 1972 and the legendary trainer’s son Charles believes he has Bewitched back to peak shape after a disappointing effort at Royal Ascot when beating only two home in the Golden Jubilee Stakes. “She was in quite a bad way after Ascot and very sore. It has taken a while to get her right, but I think she’s back on song now. She worked after racing at the Curragh on Sunday and I was pleased with her, so, fingers crossed, she will run well,” O’Brien said. “I don’t think the ground matters too much to her, we just don’t want extremes either way,” he added.
Sole Power, third to Armour Propre at the Curragh on Sunday, is the other Irish hope among the 17 entries, which also include the two favourites, Deacon Blues and Dream Ahead.
Ryan a 'National' hero Down Under
IRISH jockey Tom Ryan turned into a “National” hero in Australia on Sunday after riding the 50 to 1 winner of the Grand National Chase at the Sandown track in Melbourne.
Ryan is one of a small colony of Irish jockeys riding in Australia and secured a notable prize on board Man Of Class, who beat the favourite Kerdem by a short head in one of the most valuable jumps events down under.
It isn’t the first time Ryan, a former champion conditional rider in Ireland, has scored a big priced success. The JP McManus-owned Kadoun was also 50 to 1 when winning the Pertemps Hurdle under Ryan at the Cheltenham Festival five years ago.
Man Of Class was Ryan’s first winner in the state of Victoria.
