Murtagh looking to let Rip on Van Winkle

RACING/LEOPARDSTOWN PREVIEW:IT'S JUST 18 days since Rip Van Winkle mugged Twice Over in the shadow of the post at York but this afternoon's Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes rematch at Leopardstown can prove how time is very much on the Aidan O'Brien -trained star's side .

Ireland’s champion trainer is pursuing a record sixth victory in the €750,000 feature and he pulled a rabbit out of the hat earlier this week when Fame And Glory was diverted to an Arc preparation in favour of allowing Rip Van Winkle the opportunity for a quick Group One double.

O’Brien is also represented by the Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco and the high-class Beethoven who will be ridden by his son, Joseph. But, unsurprisingly, Johnny Murtagh has elected to stick with Rip who he has rated highly through an injury-plagued three-year-old career that also just happened to coincide with a certain Sea The Stars.

Considering it was Rip Van Winkle that perhaps gave Sea The Stars the biggest fright of his career in last year’s Eclipse, there was understandable disappointment when a first start of 2010 in Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes resulted in a lacklustre sixth to Goldikova.

O’Brien, however, insisted he was playing a long-term game with Rip Van Winkle, with an eye on getting him fresh to the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky at the end of the season. The colt duly performed much better in the Sussex Stakes and then pounced late to land the Juddmonte International at York.

That was the third Group One of Rip Van Winkle’s career but it looked doubtful for much of the York straight as he seemed to take an age to get organised before heading Twice Over in the final 50 yards.

What is significant in today’s terms though was how O’Brien insisted that Rip Van Winkle’s season is only now getting going and that he is just starting to hit his peak. Less than three weeks might not be long in terms of gaps between Group One races but the worry for his opposition now is that it could be an age in terms of potential improvement for Rip Van Winkle.

“He probably has to improve from York but we think that he has and he should be very tough to beat,” Murtagh said yesterday. “Twice Over has to travel over this time, we’re on home turf and hopefully there’s improvement in Rip.”

In contrast the Twice Over team are hoping the change of turf will actually play to their advantage.

“What we hope will play into our hands is the York race was 110 yards longer,” the Juddmonte spokesman, Teddy Grimthorpe said yesterday. “I think if the race was even 10 yards shorter it would have been a different result.”

It is 11 years since Henry Cecil hit the Group One bullseye in Ireland while Juddmonte’s other hope, Famous Name, will attempt to fill in the one blank in Dermot Weld’s Irish Group One cv.

Sea Lord’s €75,000 supplementary entry looks a big gamble and while O’Brien insists Cape Blanco is at his best trip today, the signs still point to Rip Van Winkle joining Commanche Run (1985), Triptych (1987), Giant’s Causeway (2000) and Sea The Stars last year in completing the International-Champion Stakes double.

Messrs O’Brien, Cecil and Weld will be hoping for a Group One double this afternoon as all are also represented in the Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Stakes but the mile event could turn out to be a landmark top-flight victory for local jockey Fran Berry.

With Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore committed to ride in Britain, Mick Channon has booked Berry to ride the Falmouth Stakes winner Music Show who was runner-up to Goldikova at Deauville on her last start.

Weld reintroduces his Irish Guineas winner Bethrah who holds both Music Show and Lillie Langtry on that classic form and Jacqueline Quest is a non-runner.

Music Show though is the one coming into this race on the back of a top recent effort and can score for Berry.

On one of the most significant days racing in Ireland for international audiences, Dermot Weld could provide an appropriately cosmopolitan winner of the Group Three Kilternan Stakes.

Cashelgar has his first start for Weld, and his first since finishing fourth to Debussy in a Maison-Laffitte Group in July of last year when in the care of Alain de Royer-Dupre, but his 110 rating alone gives him a major shout.

Galianna was fancied for the big amateur prize at the Galway festival only to show signs of being in season just before the race. Compensation for the JP McManus -owned mare may be imminent in the mile and a half handicap.