Kyprios regained the Comer Group International Irish St Leger crown at the Curragh on Sunday to join an elite group of Aidan O’Brien-trained horses with seven Group One career victories.
Just a handful of previous O’Brien stars – Yeats, Minding, Magical, Rock Of Gibraltar and Minding – had previously reached seven top flight successes and the world’s highest rated stayer joined them in style on day two of the €5.1 million Irish Champions Festival.
The horse that fought back from life-threatening joint problems last year won Sunday’s €600,000 feature in style under Ryan Moore, scoring as a 2/5 favourite from Vauban, with Giavellotto in third.
Moore had largely endured top level frustration over the weekend’s festival action, but acclaimed Kyprios as the best stayer he has ridden while “one in a million” was O’Brien’s label.
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“He’s so special, he’s a very, very special horse, and every year he seems to be improving. That even looks to be his best again and Ryan said he won so easy,” O’Brien said. “In the Ascot Gold Cup very few horses are able to get that far but this horse has serious class as well. He’s so genuine to get through what he has had – he’s one in a million.”
The six-year-old emulated both Order Of St George by regaining the Leger crown and his full sister Search For A Song who also won it twice (2019-20.)
O’Brien indicated Kyprios will have a shot at becoming O’Brien’s most successful Group One horse of all as his racing career will continue in 2025. Before that there might even be an ambitious tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe next month.
O’Brien had earlier landed another of the Curragh’s four Group One prizes when his second-string Lake Victoria secured the Moyglare Stud Stakes. Jockey Wayne Lordan did the honours while Moore on the 4/5 favourite Bedtime Story finished last.
The champion trainer had to settle for second in the Goffs National Stakes as another odds-on favourite Henri Matisse got unstuck. He was foiled by O’Brien’s son Joseph who saddled a third winner in five years of Ireland’s premier two-year-old contest with 12/1 shot Scorthy Champ.
The colt, named after the Co Wexford town of Enniscorthy, earned classic quotes for 2025 as jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle repeated his 2022 success in the race on Al Riffa.
“I don’t know what he will do next but if I was to guess I’d say he will run again this season,” Joseph O’Brien said. “I see him more as a miler so the Prix Lagardere or the Breeders Cup are options.”
O’Brien’s other son Donnacha had been on the Group One mark the day before through Porta Fortuna in Leopardstown’s Matron Stakes.
Her jockey Tom Marquand completed a notable double at Leopardstown with Economics in a thrilling Irish Champion Stakes and on Sunday his wife Hollie Doyle bagged a first ever winner in Ireland on Bradsell in the Bar One Flying Five. Marquand was third on Makarova.
Sunday’s official Curragh attendance was 8,645, down slightly on last year. The combined crowd figure for the weekend’s action was 18,790, up nearly 200 on a year ago.
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