Ryan Moore is clocking up air-miles with a vengeance for Aidan O’Brien this weekend although the prospect of a New York wide-draw “car park” scenario on Saturday night is hardly ideal.
The English jockey pulled off a Belmont Derby-Oaks double for O’Brien a year ago through Bolshoi Ballet and Santa Barbara.
The partnership will try to replicate that feat with Stone Age and Concert Hall, although both have to overcome being drawn widest of all in each of the Grade 1 races.
Stone Age has a formidable task on the outside of 13 runners for the $1 million Derby, due off at 10.12 and live on Sky Sports Racing.
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Concert Hall is in box 10 of the 10 runners for the $700,000 Oaks due off at 9.06, a race that sees Joseph O’Brien’s Agartha (Johnny Velazquez) immediately on her inside.
Moore is joined on the Belmont programme by his friend and rival Frankie Dettori, who teams up with Godolphin for Nations Pride and With The Moonlight in the Grade 1 features.
The Italian was in a hurry to make that date after his shock defeat on Inspiral in Newmarket’s Falmouth Stakes on Friday, the 1-7 favourite proving unable to resist Prosperous Voyage’s late lunge in the mile highlight.
However, Moore will be the one rushing back from New York.
Having ridden at Belmont, Moore faces a dash back across the Atlantic to team up with the Ballydoyle filly Tenebrism in Sunday’s €400,000 Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Deauville.
New York is a long way to go to find yourself drawn in the car park, as racing parlance goes, but Stone Age’s form does at least suggest a colt that likes to go forward in his races.
He made all to win the Leopardstown Derby Trial impressively, and although Stone Age subsequently faded out of the picture at Epsom, a drop back to 10 furlongs and quick going could be ideal.
“Maybe he didn’t need the mile-and-a-half like we thought he did,” O’Brien admitted to US media before underlining how the colt is “tactically forward enough from the gates”.
Stone Age is a 9-2 morning line favourite in the US, while Concert Hall tops the Oaks betting, a race in which Agartha tackles a mile-and-a-quarter for the first time.
Tenebrism, winner of last year’s Cheveley Park, isn’t the only Irish hope in Deauville’s first Group 1 pot of the summer season, as Sheila Lavery’s Irish Guineas runner-up New Energy also figures among the 11 runners.
Last year’s Jean Prat supplied a popular Irish winner in Ken Condon’s 29-1 outsider Law Of Indices but should New Energy step up it would be a notable landmark success for all concerned.
Co Meath-based Lavery came close to top-flight success when Lady Kaya was runner-up in the 1,000 Guineas three years ago.
Jockey Robbie Colgan’s big-race victories include the 2007 Troytown Chase and the 2014 Galmoy Hurdle but nothing at the top level in either code.
New Energy didn’t fire at Royal Ascot but previously had chased home Native Trail at the Curragh.
The Irish pair take on the French Guineas winners Mangoustine and Godolphin’s Modern Games, who drops back to seven furlongs having been third to Vadeni in the French Derby.
Also among the leading hopes is Richard Hannon’s Lusail, who finished ahead of New Energy in Ascot’s St James’s Palace Stakes. The French highlight is off at 2.50 Irish-time.
With Moore in action in the US on Saturday, Seamus Heffernan steps in for the mount on Cadamosto in Newmarket’s Darley July Cup.
O’Brien is chasing a record sixth victory in what is perhaps Europe’s most prestigious sprint, although Cadamosto must step up considerably in order to emulate former stars such as Stravinsky and Mozart.
Eddie Lynam memorably won it in 2014 with Slade Power and brings the proven Group 1 winner Romantic Proposal this time.
Michael O’Callaghan’s Twilight Jet was last behind the likely favourite Perfect Power in Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup but scoped badly afterwards.
Fairyhouse hosts the weekend’s domestic feature with Sunday’s Group 3 Brownstown Stakes.
Henry De Bromhead’s Star Girls Aalmal looked unlucky to be not closer than fourth to Noble Truth in the Jersey at Royal Ascot having previously finished in the same position in the Irish Guineas.
The filly is a notably strong traveller and seven furlongs around a bend could be ideal, especially since quick ground didn’t appear to hold problems for her at Ascot.
Affogato is a course and distance winner and isn’t rated too far behind her rival, but, like Emphatic Answer, she may prefer more of an ease in the going.
Willie Mullins introduces a new recruit from Germany in Saturday’s finale at Navan and Arriba, a half sister to the former Galway Hurdle winner Aramon, could potentially be thrown in off a mark of 60.
In other news, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) confirmed on Friday that trainer Patrick Hayes has withdrawn an appeal against a 15-month licence suspension he received in May.
Hayes was found to have brought racing into disrepute by an IHRB referrals panel on the back of the trainer being found guilty of animal neglect in Naas Circuit Court in December.
A thoroughbred in his care was found in an “emaciated state” in 2020 and Hayes received a three-month suspended sentence. He was also ordered to pay €5,000 to a local animal charity in Kildare.
