O’Brien on double
Group 1 wins in England and France
AIDAN O’BRIEN sent a strong team of raiders to the Newmarket July meeting and had to wait until the closing day on Saturday to lift the big one of the week, the £500,000 six-furlong Darley July Cup with US Navy Flag (8/1), ridden by Ryan Moore.
They then flew cross channel to Paris and combined to win the €600,000 Group 1 Grand Prix Paris with Kew Gardens (6/4f).
This brought Aidan’s Group 1 tally for the season so far to eight, a bit behind last year’s world record-breaking seasonal tally at this stage. It was his fourth success in the July Cup and a first for Moore.
The US Navy Flag success came with a typical O’Brien change of strategy; the horse had been campaigned over a mile at the Irish and French 2,000 Guineas and at Royal Ascot, without success, but the dramatic drop back in trip worked the oracle and Moore had him at the front end all the way.
Ballydoyle also picked up third at Newmarket with Fleet Review (50/1) under Wayne Lordan.
The quick dash to Paris certainly paid off for Kew Gardens who added to his Royal Ascot success with a fine win over French horse Neufbosc (7/2) and Mark Johnston’s favourite, Dee Ex Bee (9/4), under William Buick.
On the home scene, O’Brien had a low-profile double at Roscommon on Monday with Christmas (4/11) in a two-yearold maiden and a three-year-old handicap with Conclusion (4/1), both ridden by son Donnacha.
O’Brien had a treble between two meetings on Thursday, with Indianapolis (7/2) at Dundalk and then two at Leopardstown, with the mighty impressive Goddess (1/2) under Seamie Heffernan looking a 1,000 Guineas prospect even at this early stage, and Lucius Tiberius (7/2) taking the €59,000 first prize in the Nasrullah handicap.
It was a Wexford benefit night at the Dublin venue as Jim Bolger also scored a double and he and O’ Brien were in contention for others as well.
He won a handicap with Signing Off at 25/1 under ten pound claimer, Daire Davis, with his regular jockey, Kevin Manning, filling in on Joseph O’Brien’s Tremendous Leap (7/2) and taking second.
Manning was on board Cimeara (7/4) to lift the Group 3 Stanerra Stakes from Heffernan and O’Brien’s Sizzling (6/4f). Bolger also had a couple of seconds with Theobald (5/1), beaten by Johnny Murtagh’s Lethal Power (4/1), and Dawn Hoofer.
O’Brien kept up his relentless run of winners with another 29/1 double at Navan on Saturday, with Michael Hussey doing the steering on both in five furlong sprints, Fantasy (5/1) from 4/9 favourite, Rita Levy, and Fire Opal (4/1) by a neck.
He rounded off the week with an impressive win by Anthony Van Dyck (10/11) in a mile maiden at Killarney - his eighth domestic winner of the week to add to the two Group 1s, very much business as usual for the Ballydoyle maestro.
Jim Bolger rounded off his week with a winner in the last at Killarney on Sunday with Dawn Hoofer (2/1) under Kevin Manning, just three days after being second at Leopardstown. Bolger is keeping this one busy as she has had three wins, two seconds and a third in just over a month.
ICHOSE a particularly poignant time to settle down and begin the task of reading ‘Road Racer - It’s In My Blood’, a first person account of the life and times of Northern Ireland motorcycling sensation Michael Dunlop, ghostwritten by Jeff Hudson.
While I gobbled up this page-turner last Wednesday, at the same time Michael was bidding a sad farewell to his big brother, William, the third member of this prominent sporting family to be killed in an accident on the roads.
Given what had happened, in Skerries, Co. Dublin, during an event on the previous weekend, I was drawn towards the book even though I knew that sad event had considerably dated its content.
Nonetheless, it was still an opportunity to get some sense of the incredible loss that must be felt by family members when a professional sportsperson goes out to do their job and doesn’t make it home.
Ballymoney in Co. Antrim is known as ‘Dunlop Country’, and motorcycle road racing is by far the most popular pastime in that part of Northern Ireland.
And while the family has put the area on the map, it has been achieved at an immense cost.
Michael’s uncle, Joey, was a legend with 26 Isle of Man TT wins to his credit, but he was involved in a fatal crash in
Estonia in 2000.
His loss rocked the sport to its core, and he is remembered in a beautiful memorial garden in the town he made famous.
Then, eight years later, Michael’s father,
Robert, was killed at a race his son was also competing in. Indeed, he endured the great shock of coming across the accident and trying to comfort his father before the medics arrived, a situation that no 19-year-old should have to endure.
Robert had been lucky to survive a previous accident in 1994 which left him with one leg two inches shorter than the other before corrective surgery, and Michael has childhood memories of his father being house-bound for over a year afterwards.
Through sheer guts and determination he made his comeback, and the same qualities were evident when his son decided to race to honour his memory just two days after his death. Not alone did he win, he also broke the course record on an emotional day.
It’s clear in the book that Michael and William were always very close, two road racing fanatics even though the brother in the middle, Daniel, had no interest and served as a soldier in Afghanistan.
Michael has a reputation for being an aggressive, in-your-face, risk-taker in the sport, whereas William was a more subtle, considered man on two wheels.
‘With William, I can ride wheel to wheel with him,’ he notes. ‘Him on the brakes, me on the brakes, no bother the two of us. We’re like synchronised swimmers on wheels.
‘We can run centimetres between each other because he’s so smooth; his lines and his style are just perfect, so you always know where he’s going to be.’
Given recent events, Michael’s thoughts on the inherent dangers in the sport are also insightful. ‘It’s a funny thing to say, but accidents are a way of life for riders. I’ve come off my bike so many times I’ve lost count.
‘You look into the history of any racer and there’ll be broken bones somewhere down the line. But the mad thing is, we always get back up, get back on.
‘There’s only one thing that stops us. One thing that
And that’s the thing no one talks about.’
A brave but broken man left to carry on the proud family tradition, nobody would be critical if Michael did decide enough was enough. ALAN AHERNE
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