Caravaggio launches O’brien double after going into overdrive
High-class rivals push unbeaten colt to limit Winter shows class in leading Ballydoyle 1-2-3
Even with Churchill, Order Of St George and Highland Reel – oncein-a-lifetime horses for any other trainer – on the team, yesterday always looked like it would be Aidan O’brien’s best day at this Royal Ascot, and so it proved. Both Caravaggio and Winter justified odds-on favouritism to give him a Group One double.
Caravaggio was sent off the 5-6 favourite to retain his unblemished record in the Commonwealth Cup and he duly obliged. However, it was not the cakewalk the betting suggested and he needed all his gears to finally overhaul the frontrunning Harry Angel and Blue Point in the last 100 yards to win by three-quarters of a length.
The class of ’17 sprinters look a fine bunch, especially if you include Lady Aurelia among them. And if it took the winner until well inside the final furlong to get on top, that is not to knock him but, rather, suggest the second and third are also exciting colts. Caravaggio will need to have his wits about him if he is to keep beating them this summer.
“He is very quick,” said O’brien. “I’d be happier at two furlongs than six with this fella. He’s the fastest horse we’ve had. He had plenty to do at halfway behind two good horses and he only raced for 2½ furlongs. I was very nervous today as he was just ready to come through, so I’m delighted he did.”
The trainer said he would be conscious about not giving him too hard a summer, with the Everest – a new £6million sprint at Randwick, Sydney, on Oct 14 on the same lines as the Pegasus in America, whereby you buy a slot in the line-up – a possible autumn target.
“I think that was a fairly exceptional race,” said Moore. “He has beaten two very good horses there. They made him work and it is the first time he has ever been asked a question, so he was a bit unsure when he got the message, but he responded well. I ride Limato [Diamond Jubilee Stakes] tomorrow so we will see how they measure up.”
Winter completed the Newmarket and Irish Guineas and Coronation Stakes treble with super efficiency rather than flamboyance under Moore.
Proving, after the reverses of Churchill and Order Of St George earlier in the week, that Ballydoyle had really hit top form, she led home a 1-2-3 for the stable.
“She’s a grand, big mare, who is getting relaxed,” said O’brien. “In fact, I thought she raced lazy early, although she galloped out strong. Every one of those three races are very hard to win. I go from race to race rather than trying to make it happen, so I’m delighted.”
“She’s got a lot of class,” said Moore. “She is only doing what she has to do, really. It’s a hard thing to win both Guineas and come here. Attraction was the last to do it.”
Asked whether Moore considered yesterday’s Group One double some sort of consolation for Order Of St George’s narrow defeat in Thursday’s Gold Cup, the jockey replied succinctly: “No.”
Mark Johnston rarely leaves this meeting without a winner – he has only trekked back north without a trophy three times since 1994 – but considered Permian’s victory in the King Edward VII Stakes a relief, as one of those blanks had been last year.
A Franco-hibernian collaboration – French trainer, Irish owner – won the Albany Stakes with what is surely the bargain of the meeting when Different League beat the favourite Alpha Centauri by a neck.
The winner, owned by pinhooker Con Marnane, cost him €8,000 [£7,000], less than some outfits at Ascot this week, as a foal. Unable to sell her on, Marnane put her into training with Matthieu Palussiere, in France, where she picks up extra prize money because she is a French-bred. Nevertheless, having run and won twice in France, she came in under the radar here at 20-1.