Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JUST AN ILLUSION Royal seals a Cesarewitch double for Mullins
WILLIE Mullins completed a superb Cesarewitch double when Royal Illusion proved an emphatic winner of the Tote-sponsored handicap at the Curragh.
Mullins, whose 25/1 shot Stratum had won the English equivalent in Newmarket on Saturday, saddled three for the Curragh feature, including top-weight and favourite Saglawy.
But it was Royal Illusion and apprentice Joey Sheridan, who prevailed by no less than eight and a half lengths on a day when Mullins also recorded a double in Limerick, highlighted by Cabaret
Queen’s runaway success in the €100,000 J T Mcnamara Ladbrokes Munster
National.
Cabaret Queen made virtually all and romped home a 13 lengths winner under Paul Townend, beating Spider Web and Oscar Knight.
Cabaret Queen is owned by Syndicates Racing, and was building on the earlier all-the-way winner Listen Dear in the listed Pricewaterhousecoopers Cailin Alainn Mares Hurdle.
The other listed event, the Ladbrokes-sponsored novice hurdle went to Gavin Cromwell’s favourite Darver Star, ridden by Jonathan Moore, who went on to complete a double when Noel Meade’s Minella Fair turned over odds-on favourite Cracking Smart in the concluding beginners chase.
Back at the Curragh, where Aidan O’brien completed a treble with two-year-olds Precious Moments, Tango (both ridden by son Donnacha) and Fancy Blue (Seamus Heffernan), the amazing, Denis Hogan-trained Make A Challenge made a successful step into listed company to land the Waterford Testimonial Stakes at the expense of Downforce and Urban Beat.
Make A Challenge, ridden again by Joe Doyle, was winning his sixth race of the season. And Hogan (inset) hinted that his stable star might be supplemented for the Champions Sprint at Ascot next Saturday, with a trip to Dubai also on the cards.
DONNACHA O’brien, three clear in the jockey title race, will be on board today’s nap Gin Blossom, for his brother Joseph, in the Thomastown Fillies Median Auction Maiden at Gowran Park.
A fast finisher when beaten a head by Katiba on debut at the Curragh, the Make Believe filly will know more about her job today.
O’brien might also land the opening maiden on Ballydoyle colt Arthur’s Kingdom, runner-up in his two starts and just pipped at Killarney last time, while Joseph’s Pasley, which bumped into the progressive Bigger And Better on his handicap debut on this track, crying out for a longer trip, appeals in the finale.