It’s full Mark’s to Aidan
BASILICA PRAYERS ANSWERED
ST MARK’S BASILICA repaid the faith of punters who took him for gospel in the Coral-eclipse Stakes at Sandown.
Last year’s Dewhurst Stakes winner is the only Classic winner among Aidan O’brien’s threeyear-old colts this season – Ballydoyle fillies have captured four between them in 2021 – with victories in the Poule d’essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club.
O’brien admitted the son of Siyouni had “a lot to lose” as he took on his elders for the Group 1 clash of the generations, which attracted just four runners.
Ryan Moore was animated in the saddle as David Egan and the four-year-old Mishriff cruised up to the pacemaking seven-yearold Addeybb entering the final quarter mile of the 10-furlong test.
But St Mark’s Basilica soon found his stride, lengthening three and a half lengths clear of Addeybb, who held Mishriff by a neck for second.
El Drama, who had finished well-beaten behind St Mark’s Basilica in the French Derby, completed last of the quartet.
“By him getting beat today, it was going to neutralise all the work he had done up until now,” said O’brien, winning the Eclipse for the sixth time, and the first time since So You Think in 2011.
“He was after winning two French Classics and a Dewhurst, so he had a lot to lose today.”
An equallyimpressed Moore added: “He’s run against two horses
who have proven to be as good as there is in the world – Mishriff has done it on every surface and Addeybb has beaten up horses in Australia for the last couple of years.
“He’s very exciting. He’s got a very good turn of foot and when I asked him to do his job he picked up and put the race away.”
St Mark’s Basilica has the Juddmonte International at York on August 22 and the Irish
The colt is very exciting. He’s got a very good turn of foot
Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on September 11 next on his to-do list.
“He could do both – there’s plenty of time between them,” added O’brien.
One of the summer’s highprofile meetings got off to an embarrassing start thanks to a fault with the photo-finish gear.
Judge Jane Green initially called Phoenix Star the winner of the opening five-furlong handicap – a view at odds with the evidence of the camera, which appeared to show Hurricane Ivor, whose jockey Tom Marquand partnered a further three winners on the card, had passed the post in front. The discovery of a misaligned mirror on the finishing line then led to the announcement of a dead-heat.
“Most people think we won the race, but it’s impossible to know,” said Hurricane Ivor’s trainer William Haggas.
DREAM OF DREAMS, winner of the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, will miss next Saturday’s July Cup and the rest of the season after aggravating an old ankle injury.