Treasure Beach held on gamely to defeat his fellow European invader Ziyarid to win the Grade 1 Secretariat
The English-bred Aidan O’Brien trained Treasure Beach in his United States debut held off gamely to narrowly win the Grade 1 $400,000 Secretariat Stakes on 13 August at Arlington Park.
The 3-year-old Galileo colt was locked in intense battle with fellow European invader, the Irish-bred Ziyarid. It was a joy to watch all European clash at the end of an American rave.
Treasure Beach last won a Grade 1 race back in Ireland in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh, entirely for colts and filles and run over at a distance of 1 mile and 4 furlongs on 26 June, 2011.
Treasure Beach topped the first two European finishes by a neck over Ziyarid in the 1 ¼ mile Secretariat. Treasure Beach under C O’Donoghue chased Ziyarid tracks for a whole mile, before responding to his jockey as he got put into a strong drive to get into
even terms with Ziyarid.
The pair broke very well from the gates and since then looked prominent and started tracking the leader alongside the rail in second position. Treasure Beach responded gamely to all the C O’Donoghue maneuvers.
With 2 furlongs to go, Treasure Beach got shaken up by his jockey to give his all. Switched sides to the outside, and then on out, it was a hard ridden race with Ziyarid just in striking range.
1 ½ furlongs to go Treasure Beach took a narrow lead over Ziyarid and led 100 yards out, ran on well under pressure to hit the wire by a mere neck.
Aidan O’Brien won the last Grade 1 Secretariat back in 2000 when he sent out Ciro, Treasure Beach the son of Galileo out of Honorine by Mark of Esteem landed his 5th race out of 10 starts with the life time earnings of £1,148,856.
Ziyarid on the other hand was coming off a victory in the Group 3 Prix Daphins at Longchamp on 2 July, 2011 and on a three race win streak.
Trained by A De Royer-Dupre for owner H H Aga Khan, the dark brown 3-year-old colt broke well under jockey Christophe-Patrice Lemaire, the pair straight away led on the rail and pressed strongly throughout the race.
They seemed to be the eventual winners with 2 furlongs to go, ridden 1 ½ furlongs out Ziyarid responded gamely as he headed 100 yards from home.
The 3-year-old got pinned o the rail during the stretch, but whatever the case he made Treasure Beach earn this victory. It was Ziyarid until the sixteenth pole, when on the inside he lost his narrow advantage to Treasure Beach and finished 1 ½ lengths before
the third placed banned.
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