O’Brien back in business as Kew Gardens lands Leger
Classic win confirms Irish trainer’s return to form Gosden’s Too Darn Hot earns 3-1 quote for Guineas
It was a return to business as normal for Aidan O’Brien when Kew Gardens, the 3-1 second favourite, ran out an impressive 2¼-length winner of the 242nd running of the William Hill St Leger at Doncaster yesterday.
This time last year, when Capri won the Leger, everyone was asking if O’Brien could beat Bobby Frankel’s record of 25 Group Ones in a season, a figure he eventually smashed.
And although yesterday’s race was his third British Classic of 2018, a score most trainers would give their left arm to achieve, and his 11th Group One, it camouflages a disappointing second half of July and August when, proving a certain degree of mortality, Ballydoyle was laid low by a bug across all three of its yards.
However, his horses have been flying again at home in Ireland and Kew Gardens, the one proven Group One performer in this Leger field having won the Grand Prix de Paris in July, duly made light work of what looked a good field on paper.
His class was certainly too much, on this occasion, for the inexperienced favourite Lah Ti Dar who followed him home without ever quite looking like the winner.
Ryan Moore sat in seventh on Kew Gardens for the first mile as his stablemate Nelson set a sensible pace up front, blindsiding those who thought Ballydoyle’s pacemaker would set a mad gallop to make the most of Kew Gardens’ proven stamina.
Frankie Dettori on Lah Ti Dar tracked him in eighth but the jockey was having to ride the Lloyd-Webber filly three-quarters of a mile out.
Half a mile out, Moore pulled Kew Gardens to the outside and began to make his move, hitting the front two out and running on strongly.
Having momentarily looked like she would struggle to be placed, Lah Ti Dar eventually picked up and stayed on well for second, with Southern France, a Ballydoyle outsider, 4½ lengths back in third, with the Derby runner-up Dee Ex Bee fourth, in front of Old Persian.
“He’s very uncomplicated and straightforward with a fantastic attitude,” said Moore as he disappeared in the direction of the airport with O’Brien, trying to make Leopardstown in time for the Matron Stakes. “I thought he won it nicely.”
Winning owner Derek Smith admitted that the Coolmore “lads” had had a lean time of it of late but he was philosophical about it.
“It’s frustrating but we’ve had a good run over the years,” he said. “And it’s nice that we’re out of it [the bug]. There are a lot more important things to life than racing… like Chelsea. I couldn’t go to Coolmore [to celebrate] tonight if they got beat!”
He added: “Kew Gardens is probably better on better ground. On fast ground he’d be a handful [over a mile and a half] but you couldn’t fault him today, the way he made up his ground. It was all over in a flash.”
With Moore and O’Brien probably already airborne by the time the trophy was presented and only Smith to take the booty on their behalf, it would be no surprise if the sponsors felt a little short changed that Ireland’s big day clashes with such a prestigious and long -standing race here.
John Gosden was pleased with Lah Ti Dar. “She ran a blinder and, as Frankie said, it was her first real race in her life. She was beaten by a proper horse who has won the Grand Prix de Paris and the Queen’s Vase. She’ll be freshened up and go for the Fillies and Mares’ on Champions Day.”
The filly’s full-brother Too Darn Hot had an arguably more important engagement, given his reputation after two facile wins from two starts, in the Howcroft Industrial Supplies Champagne Stakes 35 minutes earlier and he Roaring Lion won a thrilling Qipco Irish Champion Stakes when he got up on the line to beat his old adversary Saxon Warrior by a neck at Leopardstown.
Their rivalry has been one of the defining themes of the past 12 months and the score between the two colts in five meetings is now three to Roaring
Saxon Warrior beaten by old adversary
Lion and two to Saxon Warrior.
This was the closest yet with Saxon Warrior getting first run but Oisin Murphy produced John Gosden’s colt with perfect timing.
Sheikh Fahad Al Thani’s racing manager David Redvers said: “Credit to Coolmore, they set it up brilliantly for their horse and it took a sensational performance from our horse and jockey to get up on the line.”
Earlier, Laurens, the Prix de Diane winner who failed to stay a mile and a half in the Yorkshire Oaks, brought Alpha Centauri’s run of four Group One wins to an end when she returned to a mile and dominated the Coolmore Matron Stakes from start to finish.
Karl Burke’s filly put her stamina to excellent use under Danny Tudhope who kicked early to gallop the finishing kick out of Jessica Harrington’s all-conquering filly who eventually lost by a length. did not disappoint. He is now 3-1 for the Guineas and 7-2 for the Derby after beating the Acomb winner Phoenix of Spain a length and three-quarters after Dettori had merely changed hands a few times and waved the whip at him.
“He gave me a very good feel,” said Dettori. “I was too concentrated on Silvestre [de Sousa on Dark Vision] and he took me too far back.
“I thought ‘forget about him – go after the others’ and he made up six lengths in two furlongs.
“Uphill at Sandown it is hard to gauge just how good they are but he went through the gears very nicely.”
Gosden was delighted to see that Dettori’s biggest problem was pulling up Too Darn Hot at the end of the race which is usually a good sign.
“I’m very happy with him,” he said. “He’s in all three Group Ones in October and there’ll be no decision which for 10 days.”