Cape Blanco Gave Aidan O'Brien his Fifth Consecutive Irish Derby win
All eyes were on Curragh Racecourse, as the Irish Derby concludes. A great day for trainer Aiden O’Brian, great day for Irish Horse Racing and a very lucky day for Johnny Murtagh.
This year’s Irish Derby was the third clean sweep for Aiden O’Brian. Ballydoyle stables took the first second and third spots with Cape Blanco leading, Midas Touch in second place and Jan Vermeer behind him. O’Brian’s entrants were so firmly in control that at no point did the win even appear doubtful. This year’s victory for the Irish Trainer marked his 8th Irish Derby win. Five of those eight were in succession since 2006 and three of them (with the years 2002 and 2007) clean sweeps for O’Brian. O’Brian has put his name in the annals of history with the five in a row. No trainer before him has ever had such success in the Irish competition. Only conceivable down side for O’Brian, 5 of the 11 horses in the running for the nearly 1 million dollar purse were O’Brian’s. You can’t go wrong with that kind of brute force.
Johhny Murtagh, Riding Cape Blanco was lucky to escape an earlier accident. In a freak accident, the rider fell face first, off of Petronius Maximus. At the two furlong point, the horse went through the rail catapulting Murtagh forward. It was simply miraculous that Murtagh got up and walked away with nothing more than a bruised elbow and an injured nose. “The horse was a bit green and when I switched my stick he ducked and hit the rail,” Murtagh said.
Murtagh bounced right back. The Petronius Maximus scare didn’t at least faze him and he rode on and rode strong winning with Cape Blanco. Both Jockey and Colt redeemed themselves after less than impressive earlier races. Cape Blanco was just terrible in Prix du Jockey-Club not many weeks ago. “The last day in France is the only blip on his card. We couldn’t understand what happened there. Maybe the travel upset him, and it was a very hot day,” O’Brien said.
Cape Blanco proved himself once more after definitively crushing Workforce in Dante Stakes at York, and again putting down any question marks about his talents and abilities or his stamina, after bagging the mile and 4 furlongs Curragh track over his stable mates Midas Touch and Jan Vermeer. O’Brian felt the same and made it known after the race. “Today he has shown all the class and courage we knew he had” O’Brian said shrugging off his Cape Blanco’s dismal performances in France.
A much anticipated rematch is in the works for Ascot next month. "We always thought if everything did go well today then we would look at the King George," suggesting that Cape Blanco would compete at Ascot, so would Workforce. Workforce, reeling from his defeat, has upped the ante with a remarkable 7 length win at Epsom. Some now give Workforce 11-10 odds.
There was disappointment at the Irish Derby for Monterosso with Ascot fame. Monterosso, who was given a 3-1 shot by Ladbrokes, the largest betting company in UK, came in fourth after Ballydoyle’s three winners. “We didn’t come here to finish fourth but there are no excuses” his trainer, Mark Johnston said. Mark Johnston had won two handicaps but the main event did not go his way.
Early on, it was Midas Touch with his eye on the prize and Cape Blanco in hot pursuit. They were head to head until the final two furlongs, Cape Blanco then setting the pace and in the end, finishing half-length ahead of Midas Touch.
The ever so humble Murtagh gave credit for the win to O’Brian. "It was a tough choice and Aidan suggested Cape Blanco was the one” he said. Murtagh said that Cape Blanco completed the track “sweetly” and that in the final mile long stretch the horse was “tenacious.” Murtagh’s humility gets in his way and one must give credit where it’s due. Cape Blanco earned the win and Murtagh made sure of it.
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