One of the objectives for racing's new Champions Weekend is to provide a Group One autumn climax to Ireland's flat season and a top-flight success in a couple of weeks will be the cherry on top of an already notable 2014 campaign for the Dermot Weld-Pat Smullen team.
Almost six months after Vote Often won on the opening day at HQ, Weld and Smullen made sure of another Group Three prize on their Curragh doorstep on Sunday as Carla Bianca made it four wins in a row in the Irish Autism Action Dance Design Stakes.
In between there hasn’t been even a semblance of a lull in the consistency of the ‘old firm’s’ rate of success which sees Smullen over 20 winners clear of Joseph O’Brien in his pursuit of a seventh jockeys championship. Weld boasts a 25 per cent strike-rate that sees him disputing with Aidan O’Brien at the top of the trainers table, on 76 winners. All that has been missing has been a Group One victory and the difference in prize money in the trainer’s table is a reflection of the top-flight success enjoyed by the Ballydoyle behemoth in comparison.
Carla Bianca has a
Champions Weekend option of her own in Sunday week's Blandford Stakes, but unsuitable ground conditions for her would boost Weld's confidence in Forgotten Rules' chance of Palmerstown House Irish Leger success.
Weld’s seven Leger victories to date put him only behind Vincent O’Brien in the all-time list, but if the legendary trainer is a classic fixture, then Forgotten Rules is very much a dark-horse, graduating from winning a bumper in May to scoring at the Galway festival a month ago in his only other career start.
“He does want a nice ease in the ground but the Irish Leger is very much on his agenda,” Weld confirmed. “And I would certainly hope to be strongly represented during Champions Weekend.”
Another Group One option there could be Tombelaine, conqueror of Highland Reel on his debut, in the National Stakes, while Mustajeeb (Boomerang Stakes) and Free Eagle (Enterprise Stakes) are other potential high-profile Weld candidates.
Unlike Forgotten Rules, ground conditions can barely be quick enough for Carla Bianca who fought to a gutsy length defeat of Pearl Of Africa with Alive Alive Oh in third. “We knew the ground wasn’t quick enough for her and it took half a furlong to get her balanced, purely because of the ground,” said Smullen.
Weld added: “The Blandford is a possibility but the faster the ground the better for her. I thought nine furlongs was her trip, but I’m pleased with the way she came home.”
Sretaw’s consistency this season had been of the expensive kind up to Sunday’s Cambridgeshire as the mare had finished runner up six times in a row. But she picked the right €100,000 prize to finally get her head in front as Wayne Lordan drove Sretaw to a half length win over Vastonea. “She’s been improving all season but has kept bumping into one,” said Co Meath- based trainer Gavin Cromwell who was enjoying his biggest success.
Aidan O’Brien aims to take it slowly with the €2.85 million Ol’ Man River, who made an impressive winning debut on Sunday, but it is the Middle Park Stakes next for Cappella Sansevero who gave Italian rider Andrea Atzeni a first Curragh winner in the Group Three Round Tower Stakes.
Jack Naylor landed the Listed Flame Of Tara and will bid for her own Group One success in next month’s Prix Marcel Boussac.
