Independentie
| 10.4°C Dublin
Menu Sections
Menu Sections
Premium subscribers enjoy unlimited access to all articles. But there’s more: discover your full benefits now.
Close
Luxembourg, with Ryan Moore up, cross the line to win the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes on day one of the Longines Irish Champions Weekend at Leopardstown Racecourse. Photo: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
/
Michael Verney
The dream duel with Baaeed is on the cards in next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe after Luxembourg (7/2) defied an injury-ravaged season to land a thrilling renewal of the €1 million Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday.
Luxembourg was the horse on everyone’s lips after a scintillating juvenile campaign, but a muscle injury put the monstrous Camelot colt out of action for the bulk of the summer and left the remainder of his season in jeopardy.
Cobwebs were blown off in a narrow Royal Whip success last month but huge improvement was needed among a stellar field at the Foxrock track and he duly obliged with a gutsy half-length success under a powerful Ryan Moore steer.
The French challengers – gallant runner-up Onesto (11/1) and third-placed Vadeni (7/4 favourite) – threw down the gauntlet but Moore would not be denied as O’Brien landed his 11th Irish Champion Stakes, and his fourth in succession.
Amazingly, the Ballydoyle maestro had to wait until the second week of September for a Group One success with a three-year-old colt but it was clear what this meant with the “dream” now well and truly alive after a spectacular training performance.
“It was an unbelievable effort from all the team to get this horse back,” O’Brien beamed.
“The plan and the dream was we had three races mapped out if we could get him back.
Get the best analysis and comment from our award-winning team of writers and columnists with our free newsletter.
This field is required
“If we could get him to the Curragh then he could come here and if he came here for the Irish Champion Stakes then we could go for the Arc.”
O’Brien hailed a “rare” atmosphere as just over 10,000 spectators roared their approval after Luxembourg’s epic success and all roads now lead to Longchamp on October 2 – for which he is now as low as 5/1 – with more improvement to come over 1m 4f.
“He wasn’t surrendering at the line and he could be better over a mile and a half. His head was in the cooker a long way up that straight and he didn’t stop. Ryan was very impressed and he’s not an optimist by nature!” O’Brien said.
All that’s needed now is for William Haggas to confirm the brilliant Baaeed for the French showpiece and put his remarkable unbeaten streak on the line against Luxembourg as we all wait with bated breath on that decision.
O’Brien also has another star in the making after Auguste Rodin (11/10 favourite) ran out an impressive winner of the Group Two Champions Juvenile Stakes with the 52-year-old reckoning that “he could be a Derby horse that could start in the Guineas”.
Paddy Twomey is another star which has soared into orbit this season and he confirmed his arrival at Irish racing’s top table as Pearls Galore sprung a 16/1 surprise when running her rivals ragged in the Group One Matron Stakes.
Dermot Weld’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs (5/4 favourite) was all the rage beforehand but she could only muster fourth as Billy Lee dictated affairs from the front on the five-year-old mare before kicking clear in the home straight to hand Twomey his second Group One success.
“The best race of her life was this race last year (when second),” Twomey said. “She has a lot of ability and can go at a high pace and burn off other horses. That’s her true running today. The aim was to win a Group One and she’s after doing it.”
Weld got some compensation in the earlier Group Three Paddy Power Stakes when Chris Hayes produced Duke De Sessa (6/1) in the shadow of the post to deny Ger Lyons’ Thunder Kiss (4/1) by a short-head with Twomey’s Beamish (18/5) another head back in third.
Lyons and Colin Keane had earlier taken the opening Listed Ingabelle Stakes with the front-running Zarinsk (9/2) while the other Stakes prize went the way of the impressive Jadoomi (9/4 joint-favourite), trained by Simon and Ed Crisford.
Christophe Soumillon’s mount finished four lengths to the good to continue his upward curve in the Group Two Boomerang Mile while there was another British success in the Sovereign Path Handicap as Tom Marquand prevailed on I’m A Gambler (18/1), trained by Charlie and Mark Johnston.
The final race of the day went to course lover Moracana (14/1) as Sheila Lavery’s charge fended off the Mick Halford-trained Golden Twilight (33/1) with Rory Cleary’s mount getting up by a nose for his third Leopardstown success in three visits.
Independentie
A Mediahuis Website © Independent.ie