Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Churchill bids to end Aid’s QIPCO drought
O’BRIEN TARGETS FIRST TRIUMPH SINCE 2011
CHURCHILL heads the list of 14 acceptors for Saturday’s QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.
The dual Guineas-winner, last seen when runner-up to Ulysses in the Juddmonte International in York, will lead Aidan O’brien’s bid for the winner’s prize of €712,500 in a race he has won seven times, but not since 2011, when So You Think triumphed under Seamus Heffernan.
O’brien’s suggestion yesterday that his star filly Winter, also a dual Guineas-winner, plus wins in the Coronation Stakes and Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes, could take her chance in the Champion came as a surprise. And it remains more likely she’ll bid to extend her winning sequence in Saturday’s Group 1 Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes.
Ballydoyle is responsible for six of the Champion acceptors, with Investec Derby runner-up Cliffs Of Moher expected to join Churchill in the line-up.
The Martyn Meade-trained Eminent, winner of a Group 2 in Deauville last time, is expected to lead the British challenge, with Frankie Dettori in the saddle.
And Dermot Weld can choose between 2015 winner The Grey Gatsby and Zhukova, which also holds an entry in Sunday’s Blandford Stakes (Group 2) at the Curragh and other international options.
Order Of St George, winner of the race in 2015, is set to renew rivalry with his 2016 conqueror Wicklow Brave and Big Orange, which beat him in this year’s Ascot Gold Cup, in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at the Curragh on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Aidan O’brien-trained Gustav Klimt will be a hot favourite for the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’brien National Stakes while Ballydoyle’s strong team of fillies will be opposed by Jessica Harrington’s Alpha Centauri in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Group 1).
Elsewhere, it was a good evening for the season’s leading rider Colin Keane at the annual Laytown Races yesterday as a double, for his two bosses, Ger Lyons and his father Gerry, increased his lead over Pat Smullen in the title race to 67-62.
Silk Cravat got off the mark, at the sixth attempt for Ger Lyons, in the seven-furlong maiden while the Keanes combined to win the six-furlong 45-65 handicap with Red All Star.