Rip Van Winkle pulls through for Aiden O’Brien, wins Juddmonte
Prince Khalid Abdullah almost won his own race but then ‘Rip Van Winkle’ decided that he wasn’t going to let that happen. Without warning Rip Van Winkle unleashed an explosion of speed with only a 100 meters to go in the 2km race and left the Princes’ two contenders in the dirt to win the grade I, £650,000 Juddmonte International.
The Juddmonte International was quite the event this summer. It brought together grade I winners like ‘Cavalryman,’ ‘Jakkalberry’ and ‘Cutlass Bay’ along with the Juddmonte favourites Twice Over and Byword for a 10 furlong race and the race was no disappointment either.
One more for trainer Aiden O’Brien and Jockey Johnny Murtagh, and O’Brien couldn’t be more pleased with Rip Van Winkle. “Everything this year has been gentle and slow”, O’Brien said. He said that he was ‘delighted’ with Rip’s improvement with each race adding that Johnny Murtagh riding the horse was ‘marvellous’.
Disappointment would have been compounded for Prince Khalid not only because neither of his horses could win the race but also because both were extremely fast and were all set to take the first and second place. Now he must settle with ‘Twice Over’ in second place and ‘Byword’ in third.
Twice Over and Byword took the lead after the field settled and didn’t lose pace till almost the very end. With Darryll Holland aboard, ‘Stimulation’ was the horse that first surged ahead with Byword right up there with him and ‘d**k Turpin’ in pursuit. Two furlongs later the Juddmonte owned pair started to show their winning colours as Stimulation ran out of steam and slowed down. 5-1 shot d**k Turpin wasn’t comfortable as the race began and it took Jockey Richard Hughes quite a bit of effort to bring him into stride. Richard’s horse settled into pace but not before he had overexerted himself. d**k Turpin paid the price for it finishing in fifth place.
After Stimulation and d**k Turpin slowed down, Byword was the first one to take to the front of the field. Byword had good fractions but Twice Over had more in him as the final furlongs approached. With just a furlong to go Twice Over took over from Byword and set his sights on the wire. While the front of the field was settling, Johnny Murtagh was looking for space to manoeuvre Rip Van Winkle. The Middle of the field was too crowded so Murtagh veered to the outside rail after running with the field through most of the race.
Murtagh didn’t rush the race and let the pace settle. Before the wire approached he started asking Rip Van Winkle for more and the horse was more than happy to deliver. Rip rallied strong and made up lost ground quickly under urging from Murtagh. The horse continued its charge at the leader and caught up with them just short of the wire. Rip Van Winkle won the Juddmonte International barely half a length ahead of Twice over.
Stimulation and d**k Turpin had both fallen behind, to Eight and fifth respectively. Byword held on to third place less than a length behind the leaders. Byword’s pace fell considerably before the end of the race but he was well clear of his pursuers by then and Cavalryman couldn’t mount a real challenge for third place. The top three had separated themselves from the rest of the field. Fourth place finisher was a full 4 lengths behind.
Rip Van Winkle was always a force to be reckoned with and lately he has been going around proving just that. Although he couldn’t dispatch Canford Cliff last month, finishing second behind him, Murtagh is still singing his ballads. “I think when he won his two Group Ones last year he showed what a real champion he was,” Murtagh said.
Murtagh said that O’Brien had a new plan for Rip Van Winkle this year, something he learned from experience with Jan Vermeer last year. O’Brien himself admitted that he brought Jan back too quick. Murtagh said that this year O’Brien would be taking it slow with Rip. “There's a lot of big races coming up at the end of the year, and we want to have him fresh and well. I think he'll improve again from today, he was still a bit rusty”.
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