RACING NEWS:PATHFORK OPENED a new world of classic possibilities for Jessica Harrington with Saturday's hugely-impressive Futurity Stakes victory, and now next Sunday Laughing Lashes could secure the famous National Hunt trainer a first Group One success on the flat in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh.
Harrington, who is based in Moone, Co Kildare, yesterday gave Pathfork a clean bill-of-health after his length-and-a-half defeat of Glor Na Mara in the Group Two Futurity, a success that leaves the American-bred colt as low as 8 to 1 for next year’s Newmarket 2,000 Guineas.
The €190,000 Kentucky September Yearling Sale purchase is the star turn among a small team of 15 juveniles trained by Harrington who is best known for having handled the legendary champion chaser Moscow Flyer.
Harrington indicated yesterday Pathfork will run again this season, but a definite target has yet to be established.
“He has come out of it well and we were absolutely thrilled with him,” she said. “He couldn’t really have done any more than he did. We will just let the dust settle and then decide where he should go. He is entered in the Dewhurst and the Beresford, so they are options, and we could also supplement for the National Stakes.
“The owners (Tommy and Bonnie Hamilton) are American so they could like to go to the Breeders’ Cup. But we will see,” Harrington added.
However, her Group One ambitions could be tested before that as another of Harrington’s juvenile team, Laughing Lashes, is expected to be supplemented at a cost of €23,500 at tomorrow’s forfeit stage for Sunday’s Moyglare Stud Stakes.
Laughing Lashes won the Group Two Debutante Stakes at the Curragh on her last start, a traditional stepping stone to what is Ireland’s major prize of the year for two-year-old fillies.
“We have decided to supplement her for the Moyglare. She has come out of her last race well,” Harrington said.
The likely favourite for the Moyglare is the unbeaten Memory, who will attempt to complete a perfect graduation to Group One level in the seven-furlong €235,000 highlight.
Winner of her maiden in May, the Highclere Thoroughbreds-owned filly landed the Group Three Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, and last month was impressive when upped to Group Two company in the Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket.
Memory, trained by Richard Hannon, has had the Curragh feature as her target since, and she will attempt to do better than her stable companion Strong Suit, who started a 4 to 9 favourite for the Phoenix Stakes this month but managed only third to Zoffany.
Hannon is already a Moyglare winner, but it is 17 years since Lemon Souffle won for him in 1993 under Lester Piggott.
Aidan O’Brien enjoyed a purple period in the Moyglare when winning the race four times in six years with Sequoyah (2000), Quarter Moon (2001), Necklace (2003) and Rumplestiltskin in 2005. The champion trainer’s options include Together, who started favourite for the Debutante Stakes won by Laughing Lashes but could manage only third. Another possible runner is Why, who broke her maiden in a maiden at Leopardstown earlier in the month.
Last Friday’s shock 100 to 1 Nunthorpe winner Sole Power could run once more this season if ground conditions allow him appear in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp on Arc day, but trainer Eddie Lynam is unconcerned if the three-year-old doesn’t race again this season.
“He’s come out of the race brilliant and it’s as if he’d been out for a dance. He’s in great form,” Lynam said yesterday.
“The Abbaye at Longchamp is the only target for him and that’s if they get a bit of good ground. I would categorically rule him out of this year’s Hong Kong Sprint and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and races like that because he is still only a three-year-old.”
The Dublin-born trainer also dismissed any suggestion that Sole Power’s success was a fluke.
“I could argue that it was a fluke if the ground had been soft or bottomless or he stole a five-length lead and the other jockeys let him get away while they were asleep,” he said. “But no. It was unexpected, yes, fluke no, and the best horse won the race. He won on merit and I’ve never seen a flukey winner score in a fast time.”
Sole Power was a maiden Group One winner for Lynam and jockey Wayne Lordan in Friday’s Nunthorpe when holding off the O’Brien-trained favourite Starspangledbanner.
