Slattery and Ryan win Amateur Riders Derby
Aidan O'Brien supplied Wayne Lordan with the second of his two winners at Gowran Park last week.
Having her sixth start, Iseult Of Ireland got off the mark in great style to win for the pair. A 3/1 co-favourite of three horses, she led after two furlongs and was well on top when eased inside the final furlong to win by all of eight and a half lengths from the Joe Murphy-trained Victoria Kesia, another of the market leaders.
Lordan had earlier taken the eight-furlong median sires series fillies’ maiden on the Natalia Lupini-trained 20/1 shot Pretty Lavish. Nathan Crosse won the concluding 12-furlong handicap on Willie McCreery’s Fairy Wings. In the trainer’s own colours, the three-year-old came from off the pace to win by half a length from the Charles O'Brien-trained favourite Paradise Lost.
Lordan and Ryan Moore both rode winners to give Aidan O'Brien a double at the Curragh on Tuesday.
Lordan landed the race of the day, the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes, on the 6/1 chance Whirl. She battled well to beat the Joseph O'Brien-trained And So To Bed by half a length with O'Brien also taking third with the Moore-ridden odds-on favourite Giselle which was promoted a place following a stewards’ enquiry.
Moore later landed a winner of his own as the 2/1 favourite Rubies Are Red took the 12-furlong fillies’ maiden. She led inside the final furlong to beat Paddy Twomey’s Elana Osario by three-parts of a length to complete the trainer’s double.
Andy Slattery and Adam Ryan combined to take the amateur riders’ Derby with the 9/2 chance Smooth Tom. Owned and bred by Margaret O’Rourke, the five-year-old got the better of a prolonged tussle with Henry de Bromhead’s Ascending to win by half a length.
Fozzy Stack landed a sprint double at Navan on Wednesday where Seamie Heffernan and Darragh O'Sullivan rode his winners.
The veteran Kildare jockey partnered Bodhi Bear to take the near six-furlong two-year-old median auction maiden. Heffernan made most of the running on the 13/8 chance which was well on top in beating Joseph O'Brien’s favourite Mathan by a length and three-parts.
Rookie apprentice Darragh O'Sullivan won the five-furlong two-year-old maiden on New Theory to complete the Stack double. He had to work far harder than Heffernan for his success with the 11/1 chance holding on to score by a neck from Jessica Harrington’s Turners Cross.
Fethard trainer Joe Murphy and Gary Carroll won the five-furlong maiden with the 8/1 chance White Clover. She came with her challenge after being switched to her right over a furlong out and led close to the finish to beat the Edward Lynam-trained odds-on favourite Beatrix Power by half a length.
For the third day running, Aidan O'Brien and Wayne Lordan shared a winner as 15/8 favourite Double Agent took the 14-furlong maiden. He made most of the running to score by half a length from Gavin Cromwell’s If You Let Me.
Front-running tactics paid off yet again for trainer John Ryan as the five-year-old Marlpark landed the two-mile maiden hurdle at Clonmel on Thursday.
The very well-supported 11/4 chance found plenty under jockey Shane Fitzgerald when challenged by the Henry de Bromhead-trained odds-on favourite Elusive Prince at the second-last hurdle and he raced away to beat that rival by a comfortable three lengths.
Conditional jockey Cian Quirke gave trainer Andy Slattery his second winner of the week when partnering 11/10 favourite Fleur In The Park to win the two-mile maiden hurdle at Wexford on Sunday.
Another in the Margaret O’Rourke colours, the five-year-old had plenty in hand as he made most of the running to beat Henry de Bromhead’s 9/5 chance Taponthego by a length and a half.
Apprentice title going down to the wire
James Ryan headed into the final week of the season with a one-winner lead in the race to become champion apprentice when landing the biggest success of his career on Ostraka in the Group 3 William Hill Mercury Stakes at Dundalk on Friday.
The Danny Murphy-trained 66/1 chance raced up with the pace and led from the two-furlong pole to beat Andy Slattery’s Powerful Nation by a head with British raider Electric Storm, trained by James Tate a neck away in third place. Murphy won the same race a year ago with the 25/1 chance Dun Na Sead.
It was Ryan’s 31st winner of the season and he went into the Bank Holiday weekend with the narrowest of advantages over Wayne Hassett with Adam Caffrey on a tally of 29. After Monday’s fixture at Galway, the 2024 Flat season continues at Dundalk on Wednesday and Friday before concluding at the Curragh on Sunday.
Clean sweep for Irish two-year-olds in weekend Group 1 races in France and Britain
Wins for Jessica Harrington, Aidan O'Brien and Joseph O'Brien saw Irish-trained horses capture the final three European Group 1 races for two-year-olds this season over the weekend.
At Doncaster on Saturday, Harrington’s Hotazhell rounded off a fine season when getting the better of Aidan O'Brien’s Delacroix in the Futurity Stakes. The Irish pair dominated with Shane Foley’s mount prevailing by a nose.
O’Brien and Ryan Moore won the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud on Sunday with Twain which had made a winning debut at Leopardstown only eight days earlier.
Joseph O'Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle added to their Group 1 tally when Tennessee Stud took the Criterium de Saint-Cloud. He had finished a narrow runner-up to Hotazhell in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh on his previous start.
At Cheltenham on Friday, there were wins for the Gavin Cromwell-trained Path D'oroux, ridden by Keith Donoghue in the novices’ chase and the Cian Collins-trained Impero, ridden by Danny Gilligan, in the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle.
It got better for the Irish raiders on Saturday where the first four races on the card went their way. The Ian Donoghue-trained Lisnamult Lad took the novices’ handicap chase, John McConnell’s Intense Approach won the novices’ hurdle, the Henry de Bromhead-trained and Darragh O'Keeffe-ridden Senior Chief beat his own stable companion The Short Go in the handicap chase while Gordon Elliott and Jordan Gainford took the three-mile handicap hurdle with The Wallpark.
Upcoming Meetings
Dundalk – Wednesday, October 30 (First race 2.14pm)
Thurles – Thursday, October 31 (First race 1.20pm)
Down Royal – Friday, November 1 (First race 12.25pm)
Dundalk – Friday, November 1 (First race 5.30pm)
Down Royal – Saturday, November 2 (First race 12.25pm)
Curragh – Sunday, November 3 (First race 12.27pm)
Cork – Sunday, November 3 (First race 12.40pm)