Ryan Moore saved the best until last by pulling victory from the jaws of defeat as Saturday’s Juddmonte Irish Oaks eventually got won by the odds-on favourite Savethelastdance.
Some of those who took 10-11 about Aidan O’Brien’s filly could be forgiven for having torn up their tickets as success looked so unlikely outside the furlong pole that she hit 999-1 “in-running”.
By then Moore had been sending out distress signals for some time as Savethelastdance was headed in the straight first by Azazat and then passed out by the sole cross-channel challenger, Bluestocking.
Instead of the expected script, it was the 80-1 outsider of O’Brien’s four runners, Library, that momentarily looked like making most of the running until Bluestocking chased her down on the rain-softened conditions.
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But just as the big-race sponsors looked like winning their own money, Savethelastdance seemed to sprout water-wings by rallying to such effect she ultimately won with some authority by half a length.
It was a record seventh Irish Oaks for O’Brien and a third win in the race for Moore as racing’s most high-profile partnership continued their spectacular summer run of big-race success.
The dual-Derby winner Auguste Rodin and the triple Group One winner Paddington have been in prolific form while a vintage looking crop of juveniles that includes City Of Troy got added to in Saturday’s opener as the regally bred Henry Longfellow made an impressive winning debut.
No big-race victory has looked more improbable than the latest however with even the usually undemonstrative Moore admitting to being “concerned for about half mile” before eventually getting there in time.
Once again testing ground conditions looked essential to the daughter of Galileo who was quickly given 7-1 quotes for an even greater stamina test in September’s St Leger.
If her classic victory might be charitably described as workmanlike, both Moore and O’Brien appeared convinced there’s better to come from her.
“Chris’s filly (Hayes on seventh-placed Azazat just came around her when she was just starting to get going and she might have gotten a little bit intimidated by it.
“Ryan gave her a brilliant ride, he re-motivated her – when she was in a little bit of trouble he kept her coming forward without panicking and got her out, then he asked her to come again,” said O’Brien who was enjoying a 101st European classic victory.
“I’d say she’s going to sharpen up a good bit from today. She’s a massive, big masculine filly. She’s unusual as she’s a filly but she has a pair of horns on her head which is very unusual for a filly. She has a big strong backside on her.
“She’s out of a Scat Daddy mare and obviously by Galileo, all the Galileo came out when Ryan really wanted her, she got down for him,” he added.
Not many classics get treated in preparatory terms but O’Brien was keen to point to it as the first run of an autumn campaign for Savethelastdance.
Earlier on the Curragh another 10-11 favourite from Ballydoyle failed to get the job done as Perals And Rubies couldn’t land a blow on Kairyu in the Group Three Jebel Ali Anglesey Stakes.
But in juvenile terms perhaps the most significant performance on Saturday came from Henry Longfellow.
The son of Dubawi and seven-time Group One winner Minding made a faultless first step towards living up to his pedigree with O’Brien reporting Moore to be “full of this fellah.”
“She [Minding] handled that ground and he does bend his knee a bit but he quickens. You’d have to be very happy with him.
“Ryan said it was very easy and he said he didn’t touch him with the stick, he was very happy with him. He had been working well, he just came on the scene lately. For the last three weeks, week after week he was working well. He’s an exciting type of horse,” O’Brien said.
The Ballydoyle team completed a hat-trick as Emily Dickinson proved to have too much stamina for her market rival Rosscarbery in the Group Two Comer Group Two Curragh Cup.
Another product of Dubawi, and out of the 2013 Irish Oaks winner Chicquita, Emily Dickinson relished the soft ground to run out a smooth winner.
“The original plan was that she would go straight to the Goodwood Cup but when the ground changed we said we’d let her take her chance here
“Everyone was happy with her at home and that’s why she came here. I was a bit worried that she was a couple of pieces of work away but Ryan gave her a beautiful ride and got her very confident,” O’Brien reported.
Saturday’s other Group Two, the Barberstown Castle Sapphire Stakes, saw the English sprinter Art Power stretch his unbeaten Curragh record to four with a dominant performance.
The big sprint handicap, the Paddy Power Scurrys, also went cross-channel as Richard Fahey’s Strike Red gave jockey Bill Garrity a winner on his first ride in Ireland.
