Cape Blanco takes landmark win in Irish Champion Stakes
As expected Aidan O’Brien won the Group One Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, for the sixth time, but not with the horse that he was expected to do so.
It was a race for the unexpected and also a reminder not to forget a horse who has won a Classic. O’Brien fielded half of the six runners who went to post and the expectation was that Beethoven, ridden by the trainer’s son Joseph, was in there to make the running for the favourite Rip Van Winkle, who was the chosen mount of stable jockey Johnny Murtagh.
That left the third O’Brien runner, Cape Blanco, pretty much there to make up the numbers. The Irish Derby winner had, perhaps, been consigned to the back-numbers list after being beaten 11 lengths by Harbinger in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July. However, no-one told that to Seamus Heffernan who took the lead from the stalls and just kept there. The irony is that there had been doubts about Cape Blanco’s stamina – his dam was a sprinter – but he cut out the pace from Beethoven and Sea Lord, on whom Kieren Fallon was the first to realise that the leader was not about to come back to the field heading for the home turn.
But Sea Lord was out of his depth and it was left to Twice Over and Rip Van Winkle – who had fought out the finish in the Juddmonte International at York two weeks before – to try and make a fight of it. Cape Blanco seemed primed to repel all challengers but never really had to as he powered his way through the final quarter-mile to win by five lengths as Rip Van Winkle – who looked shorn of his killer speed in ground that had been softened by rain - came through to take second with Twice Over a short-head third.
For O’Brien there was the pleasure of seeing Cape Blanco fulfil the potential he had shown as a juvenile but mixed with the disappointment for Rip Van Winkle. “We always thought that a mile-and-a-quarter on nice ground was going to be his best,” he said of the winner. “And that’s what he had today. Since Ascot he’s been progressing every canter, every piece of work. But he’s a very laid-back horse – you could light a fire under him and he wouldn’t move unless you asked him.”
When asked about Murtagh’s report on Rip Van Winkle, O’Brien said: “Johnny felt that the ground was too slow for him. Rip is a miler who gets a mile-and-a-quarter where Cape Blanco is a mile-and-a-quarter horse who gets a mile-and-a-half. Rip won’t mind going back to a mile, this horse won’t mind staying at a mile-and-a-quarter or stepping up to a mile-and-a-half.”
O’Brien and Murtagh were the dominant partnership on the rest of the card and Lillie Langtry bounced back from a poor run at Newmarket in July to win the Group One Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Matron Stakes.
Lillie Langtry’s career had hung in the balance after she sustained a severe leg injury when she ran in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita last November. It was a long haul back for the filly but O’Brien and Murtagh kept the faith through a run in the Irish 1000 Guineas that showed she still had the talent to win in the Coronation Stakes that proved she was the one to beat.
However she was then beaten into fifth in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket. Murtagh knew that she had not been right and O’Brien took the patient approach and bided his time and was rewarded when the filly came back to her best. Spacious had taken up the running from Gile Na Greine on the home turn. Kieren Fallon looked like he had poached a winning lead but Spacious, who rarely runs a bad race without quite managing that elusive Group One win, started to shorten in her stride.
Murtagh, who had sat last in the early part of the race, came with a run down the outside of the field in the last two furlongs as Lillie Langtry reeled the leader in to win by a neck, with Music Show a close third.
As the man behind the Coolmore Stud, John Magnier deals in Group One winners as a matter of daily life but even he expressed surprise that Lillie Langtry had even made it back to the track. “I was fully sure that she’d never run again but, fair dues to the vets, they did a great job. It’s miraculous really.
“She’d had a bit of a rest since [the Falmouth] and she looks like she’s back to her best. And Aidan was of the opinion that she might improve from the run,” he said.
Await The Dawn may not be that high in the pecking order at O’Brien’s Ballydoyle yard – which can afford to work to the principle of Group One winners first and the rest fall in behind – but he was way too good for a decent field in the Group Three Kilternan Stakes.
Very few of them really got into the action as South Easter led them into the home turn but was then swept aside as Murtagh sent Await The Dawn into the lead as he came nine lengths clear of South Easter with Nanton in third.
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