Aidan O’Brien’s decision to split his St Leger team can result in the trainer conquering both weekend classics with Order Of St George set to put it up to his elders in Sunday’s Palmerstown Estate Irish Leger at the Curragh.
Whether or not the €350,000 centrepiece of HQ's Champions Weekend fixture deserves the classic label is one for anoraks who can point to just a single three year old – Vinnie Roe at the start of his historic four-in-a-row in 2001 – winning the Curragh Leger in the last 25 years.
Order Of St George had been ante-post favourite for today’s Doncaster Leger, the oldest classic in the world, but with his stable companions Bondi Beach and Fields Of Athenry also in the race, the decision has been made to keep him in reserve for the Curragh.
“He has form on good and fast ground, but he is one of those horses that handles ease very well,” explained O’Brien, no doubt keeping an eye on a fluid overnight weather forecast which could ease ground conditions at the Curragh that have generally been on the fast side this week.
Order Of St George gets a hefty weight allowance from the older horses, including his stable companion Kingfisher, and his Trial defeat of that horse, with Sea Moon splitting them, was hugely impressive.
Agent Murphy heads a handful of English trained hopefuls, including last year's winner Brown Panther, and would be a hugely popular winner for the Wexford born jockey Jimmy Fortune.
Last year’s Flying Five winner Stepper Point was pulled up in the Nunthorpe due a fibrillating heart issue but is reported none the worse for that and on his defeat of Mecca’s Angel here in the summer should be a major player again.
However the O'Brien team can emerge dominant in the Group 1's. A trio of Ballydoyle hopes line up in the National Stakes and Air Force Blue can back up his impressive Phoenix Stakes victory a month ago while Ballydoyle was hugely impressive when landing the Debutante and will be hard to beat in the Moyglare.
The regally bred, and evocatively named, filly is unlikely to be suited by the ground slowing too much but O'Brien has a useful line to her big rival Tanaza through Alice Springs.
O’Brien has declared 25 horses for Champions Weekend, a dozen of them at the Curragh, and runs a couple at the start of Listowel’s September festival. He also has Group 1 Sunday ambitions in Paris with Diamondsandrubies taking on Treve in Longchamp’s Prix Vermeille.
Colm O’Donoghue, who takes the reins on Bondi Beach at Doncaster, teams up with the Pretty Polly winner Diamondsandrubies – last in the Nassau a month ago - who is having just a second start at a mile and a half. She was fourth in the Epsom Oaks in June.
Ol’ Man River will be O’Donoghue’s mount in the Group 2 Prix Niel, also part of the Arc Trials card, and the colt faces a major task against the Group 1 winners, New Bay and Erupt.
