Aidan O’Brien’s dominance of not only the weekend’s Champions Festival action but the sport generally got a statistical rubber-stamp at the Curragh on Sunday when he reached 4,000 career winners.
Having earlier in the day reached 3,999 with Warm Heart’s Prix Vermeille success in Paris, events conspired to make Henry Longfellow the one to reach the landmark figure in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.
Even subsequent defeat for Kyprios behind Eldar Eldarov in the Comer Group Irish St Leger couldn’t deflect from the milestone for O’Brien whose 30-year training career has long since redrawn the parameters of success in European flat racing.
On the back of a Leopardstown four-timer on Saturday, highlighted by Auguste Rodin’s Irish Champion Stakes victory, the man who only turns 54 next month has rarely if ever appeared in a more commanding position.
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The momentous moment with Henry Longfellow underlined that ascendancy albeit in somewhat deflating circumstances for the Curragh attendance.
City Of Troy’s massive reputation made him a headline act for Sunday’s programme only for a pre-racing rain-burst to ease ground conditions. It prompted City Of Troy’s withdrawal from the National Stakes barely 20 minutes before the ‘off’.
It reduced the field for Ireland’s most valuable two-year-old contest to just four although jockey Ryan Moore simply switched to O’Brien’s second-string and Henry Longfellow justified odds-on favouritism by five lengths.
It confirmed the regally-bred colt’s position among the top of a Ballydoyle juvenile crop that even by their usual heady standards look “very different” according to their trainer.
City Of Troy still might be the most exciting of them based on his devastating success in July’s Superlative Stakes at Newmarket.
That occurred on officially ‘good to soft’ ground and after that pre-race soaking the Curragh going officially eased from ‘good’ to ‘good to yielding’ after the first race.
However, after the 6-5 favourite Ylang Ylang ran last to the English filly Fallen Angel in the Moyglare, Moore was “adamant” in reporting to O’Brien that the going was closer to soft than the official description.
“City Of Troy hadn’t run for a good while and was going to improve from the run. Sometimes in that ground they can have a hard time. He would die on his feet for you today and we didn’t want to do that to him once the ground turned.
“I had said to the lads that we wouldn’t run City Of Troy on soft ground. We took a chance in Newmarket and got away with it. He’s too beautiful a mover. Ryan was adamant that it was closer to soft than good to yielding,” O’Brien.
If it made for a somewhat hollow contest, there was no denying how impressive Henry Longfellow was. The son of Dubawi and seven-time Group One winner Minding was cut to 7-2 with some firms for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.
The National Stakes was O’Brien’s first Group One success in 1996 with the Walter Swinburn-ridden Desert King.
As for emulating Dermot Weld and Willie Mullins, the only other Irish trainers to reach 4,000, O’Brien was typically modest.
“I’m so grateful to so many people all the way along the line. It’s all pure teamwork, it’s just incredible and it’s just hard to believe really today that it was that. We always take one day at a time but it’s great people that make those things happen. Great horses, great people, and great teamwork really,” he said.
Having won half the races up for grabs at Leopardstown, it was tougher for the Ballydoyle team at Sunday’s second leg of Irish flat racing’s showpiece event.
Despite returning to action after a serious leg problem earlier in the season, Kyprios started odds-on to defend his Irish Leger title but couldn’t peg back the English raider Eldar Eldarov in another four-runner contest.
The Roger Varian-trained winner added to his 2022 English Leger success under jockey David Egan who was riding his first winner in Ireland.
The 24-year-old rider, a grandson of the renowned trainer and jockey Dessie Hughes, grew up on the Curragh and was understandably thrilled with his own milestone moment.
“I had my first classic winner last year but to do it where I grew up at Osborne Lodge, which is at the five-furlong pole, means a lot. It’s what dreams are made of and for all the team connected with the horse,” Egan said.
“He had a setback coming here for the St Leger Trial so the boss [Varian]played it safe and took him home to make sure he’d be alright and it was a blessing in disguise.
“I had a lot of faith in my horse, he’s a Classic winner already and Royal Ascot winner. He hasn’t really got the rub of the green this year. I think this is his optimum trip,” he added.
Confined to a single win the day before, Sunday’s action proved much more profitable for cross-channel raiders overall.
Successful with Flight Plan in a Group Two at Leopardstown, the Karl Burke-Danny Tudhope team struck in the Moyglare with the ultra-impressive Fallen Angel.
The British hope briefly looked like being swamped by Vespertilio a furlong out only to stretch clear again and score at 9-2.
A cross-channel hat-trick on the day was completed by the odds-on favourite Native American in the valuable Tattersalls auction contest.
Colin Keane did the steering on that winner and quickly doubled up on his father Gerry’s Crystal Black in the concluding Northfields Handicap.
