Starspangledbanner flies flag in Golden Jubilee Stakes
So much for Aidan O’Brien being out of form. Starspangledbanner capped a great end to what had looked like being a bleak Royal Ascot for O’Brien and Johnny Murtagh when he won the Group One Golden Jubilee Stakes.
They were taking no prisoners from the start as Sayif and Starspangledbanner led the stands’ while Prime Defender and Lord Shanakill were pulling the group on the far side through the early furlongs.
At halfway it appeared that the far-side group might have had an advantage with Fleeting Spirit leading into the final quarter-mile. But nothing could live with Starspangledbanner as he romped home by one-and-three-quarter lengths from rank outsider Society Rock in second and Kinsale King, the American runner, in third.
The race brought the story of Choisir, the Australian horse who won both the King’s Stand and Golden Jubilee Stakes seven years ago, full circle as he is the sire of the winner who was originally trained in Australia until he was acquired by the Coolmore syndicate to race in Europe this season.
Murtagh had been in the saddle for both of those glory days with Choisir. He had also been riding Starspangledbanner on his debut run for O’Brien, when he was fifth in the Duke Of York Stakes last month. Both were confident that the son was about to rise. “Aidan was very confident coming into this race. He told me to just jump him out, let him use that stride, and not to be anxious when I got to the two, wait until I got to furlong and a half out and when I went for him, Aidan thought that when I went for him, he should respond.
“Everything just worked perfectly. I had a lovely draw - he jumped well, travelled really well. There was a good strong gallop all of the way and I sensed them coming at the two but when I let him go, he really ran straight up the rail and responded.
“He responded very well and went right to the line - I couldn’t pull him up after the race. I think that he is a great horse.
“He’s very similar to Choisir. They are both big, strong but when I rode Starspangledbanner today, he was different - he was in a different zone and there was about 20 lengths improvement in him from his last run York.
O’Brien uses sophisticated timing equipment to monitor work and after this horse galloped he had everything checked, just to make sure that the clock really was not lying. “Before York he was only half-speeding but his half-speeding was unbelievable,” O’Brien said. “He was just ready to start at York and got tired but his work since then has been incredible - his second last furlong in his final piece of work was just under nine and a half seconds, which I have never seen before.
“When a horse can do that kind of work, we’ve never seen it, and he is without doubt the fastest sprinter I have trained. To go that fast, furlong by furlong, you don’t record those kinds of time - we have never recorded them, anyway. Hopefully he will go for the July Cup now and we would really look forward to that. He is an incredible sprinter.”
O’Brien may not have been out of the stalls like a sprinter this week but he stayed on like the Gold Cup winner that Age Of Aquarius was so close to becoming on Thursday. “Thanks to everyone for being so patient all year,” he said. “We started slow at the start of the week they were obviously very slow but Johnny was brilliant yesterday and brilliant again today. It’s credit to everybody.”
The debit side of Starspangledbanner’s win is that it hastens his retirement to stud in Australia following next month’s July Cup. That possibility was voiced by part-owner John Magnier, head of Ireland’s Coolmore Stud and its Australian base of the same name.
“It was the plan for him to go to stud down there this summer [before the Coolmore team bought into the horse], but obviously we will now have to see what Derrick [Smith] and Michael [Tabor] want to do with him,” Magnier said.” They can earn some money back from him [at stud] or race him - it’s up to them.
“If he is to go to stud he would pretty well have to give up racing now, although he could probably run in the [Darley] July Cup and go then. Derrick and Michael are interested in the racing side rather than the breeding side, so I’d say if Aidan recommended he should stay in training the probability is they would do that. It’s not all about the money for Michael and Derrick, it’s about the racing.”
The possibility of Australia’s top sprinter Denman taking on Starspangledbanner in the Darley July Cup does not induce fear in O’Brien, who said: “We’re delighted if he comes over, but we’ve never had anything like this fellow. He works like a quarter horse. You saw today what we see at home - and I don’t want to be accused of hyping him.”
Not much chance of that.
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