Racing Doncaster and Leopardstown
Aidan O’Brien returns to business as usual with a sixth St Leger victory
The William Hill St Leger Festival, Doncaster Racecourse, Yorks
WHEN Kew Gardens finished down the field in the Derby, beaten by 27 lengths, he looked an unlikely candidate to be Ballydoyle’s star three-year-old in 2018. But on Saturday, 15 September, he continued to fly the flag for Coolmore by adding a win in the William Hill St Leger at Doncaster to the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot and the Grand
Prix de Paris.
Despite his Group Onewinning credentials, it was the potential of the unbeaten, but only thrice-raced, Lah Ti Dar who had caught the punters’ imagination.
It eventually came down to a race between the Ballydoyle colt and the Lloyd-Webber-owned filly, though it was Kew Gardens, under Ryan Moore, who came out on top, winning the 242nd running of the season’s longest, and last, Classic by two-and-aquarter lengths.
Turning in, the favourite Lah Ti Dar, who was tracking Kew Gardens, was already under pressure from Frankie Dettori and for a moment it looked like she might struggle to finish in the money. Eventually she began to pick up but, by that time, the winner had gone.
Though it was his third British Classic of the season, it represented a return to business as usual for Aidan O’Brien, who was winning his sixth St Leger. Last year, he set a new record for the most Group Ones in a season. That was always going to be a hard act to follow, but all three yards at Ballydoyle were beset by an airborne virus during the summer.
This lull in form might not have been the worst thing to happen to Irish racing, because it allowed a few other owners and trainers a “look-in”, but O’Brien’s horses have been flying again at home lately. This was further proof that all is well and the yard looks set for a strong autumn.
“Kew Gardens travelled well
and got there really easily,” said Ryan. “He’s a very uncomplicated, easy horse and he did it very impressively. He tries hard and has a great attitude to life. He
‘Kew Gardens travelled well and got there really easily. He has a great attitude to life’
JOCKEY RYAN MOORE
picked up well and beat a good field.”
O'Brien suggested that Kew Gardens would hold his own in the big mile-and-a-half races and, of course, there would be very little to lose dropping him back to a mile-and-a-half in the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe.
Lah Ti Dar also looks to have a smart future at four.
“It’s the first real race she’s had in her life,” said trainer John Gosden. “She was beaten by a proper horse.”
A day later, O’Brien completed a Classic double when Flag Of Honour put up a similarly strong performance to beat Latrobe in the Irish St Leger at The Curragh.
A HOT PICK
ONE of the great excitements of the autumn is the two-year-olds starting to come through to full potential and, of those we have seen so far, Too Darn Hot is surely the pick of them.
On Saturday, the Lloyd-Webber-owned full-brother to Lah Ti Dar beat the Acomb winner, Phoenix Of Spain, by a length-and-three-quarters in the Howcroft Industrial Supplies Champagne Stakes.
Admittedly, Dark Vision, Goodwood’s Vintage Stakes winner, ran an abysmal race finishing last. But Dettori, aboard Too Darn Hot, only had to change hands a couple of times and show him the whip for an impressive win.
“I was concentrating on Silvestre [de Sousa on Dark Vision] and he took me too far back,” admitted Dettori.
“I had a look up at halfway and thought, ‘Forget about him, go after the others.’
“What Too Darn Hot did between the three pole and furlong marker was pretty amazing. He made up six lengths in two furlongs. It’s hard to tell uphill at Sandown [where he won
the Solario] how good they are, but this was his first time on a flat track and he gave me a really good feel, he went through the gears.”
Sir Michael Stoute’s juvenile, Sangarius, should be on any shortlist for smart horses next year after the son of Kingman finished strongly to win the Weatherbys Global Stallion App Flying Scotsman Stakes — a race owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms won with the great Frankel.