Handicapper rates Hurricane below-average Derby winner

RACING: Hurricane Run may have broken Kieren Fallon's Curragh blank on Sunday but the André Fabre-trained star has still been officially rated a below-average Budweiser Irish Derby winner.

Racing's handicapper has handed Hurricane Run a rating of 120 for winning at the weekend and that is 3lb lower than the mark Grey Swallow earned for his 2004 success.

It is also a pound below what Fabre's previous Irish Derby winner, Winged Love, got for scoring in 1995.

"In many ways we have been spoilt in recent years with the likes of Sinndar, High Chaparral and Galileo all rated in the high 120s after winning the Derby at the Curragh," handicapper Garry O'Gorman said yesterday.

"Grey Swallow last year got a pretty average mark of 123 so Sunday looks like it wasn't one of those vintage renewals.

"It's at the lower end of the scale. But Hurricane Run does look a horse that could improve on that."

Just half a length behind Hurricane Run was the Aidan O'Brien-trained Scorpion, who has been raised 13lb in the ratings to 119 while the third, Shalapour, who is a possible for the St Leger, has been upped 18lb.

"Helvetio and Brahminy Kite both ran at Royal Ascot at York and there is a feeling that those two running back-to-back races so quickly may not have run up to the marks they got at York," O'Gorman added.

Fracas could only manage to beat home Walk In The Park on Sunday, but his jockey Jamie Spencer hasn't given up hope that the David Wachman colt can have a productive autumn campaign.

"He disappointed on Sunday but Epsom can take more out of a horse than you think and Walk In The Park also ran poorly," Spencer said yesterday.

"He just never performed but hopefully he can come back in the autumn as he is going to have a break now."

The Group One bandwagon will now be focused on Sandown on Saturday, when the unbeaten Epsom Derby winner Motivator takes on older horses for the first time in the Coral Eclipse over 10 furlongs.

A total of 10 horses have been left in the Eclipse after yesterday's forfeit stage and they include the O'Brien-trained pair Oratorio and Powerscourt.

O'Brien is a double Eclipse winner in the past with Giant's Causeway (2000) and Hawk Wing (2002.)

Both those winners were three-year-olds, and the big race sponsors rate Motivator an odds-on favourite to win for the Classic generation.

John Murtagh's mount is a 5 to 6 favourite, and his principal danger is rated Godolphin's double French classic and St James's Palace Stakes winner Shamardal at 2 to 1.

The Australian horse Starcraft is a 7 to 1 shot while Oratorio, third in the James's Palace, is next best at 11 to 1.

Fran Berry had a mixed three-day Curragh Festival with victories in the Group Three Curragh Cup and the Listed mile contrasting with a nine-day suspension for careless riding on the Friday evening.

The jockey has, however, lodged an appeal against that ban with the Turf Club's Appeals & Referrals Committee, who will look at the last-race incident that resulted in Berry's colleague Pat Smullen taking a heavy fall.

A rare blank day yesterday is followed by tonight's Sligo fixture, which sees an interesting runner in the five-year-old maiden hurdle from the Joanna Morgan stable.

Former Senator has his first run for his new trainer after leaving Dermot Weld's yard, where he was once spoken of as a possible Classic prospect.

Wind problems certainly didn't help his career, but he still showed a level of flat form that will make him hard to beat if translating that ability to jumping.

Penny Rich and Torcello renew hostilities in the mile and a quarter claimer, having clashed at Clonmel, where Penny Rich emerged best by half a length.

That was Torcello's first start since February, however, and the seven-year-old could be the answer tonight.