Final declarations for Easter Monday’s €500,000 Boylesports Irish Grand National are made just hours before a possible glimpse of international flat racing’s future occurs in Meydan on Saturday.
Auguste Rodin leads a seven-strong Aidan O’Brien raiding party into a $30.5 million Dubai World Cup programme that features mouthwatering clashes between some of the best of Europe and Japan.
None is anticipated more than Auguste Rodin taking on the Japanese fillies’ Triple Crown winner Liberty Island in the $6 million Sheema Classic (off at 4pm Irish time), the race that propelled last year’s undisputed world champion Equinox on to the global scene.
The Middle East’s rapidly expanding role in worldwide racing was underlined when Tower of London became O’Brien’s first winner in Saudi Arabia last month. Before that the Irish man also had runners in Qatar.
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However, pitching a genuine A-lister like Auguste Rodin into the Meydan mix appears to signal a new intent on the part of O’Brien and the Coolmore ownership.
That last year’s dual-Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup winner is back for a four-year-old career is significant anyway. But having him start in March in Meydan underlines how the changing face of international competition is being powered to a large degree by Japan.
Auguste Rodin embodies that as a son of the legendary Japanese star Deep Impact, and given how the World Cup dates fit with Japan’s lucrative domestic calendar, what was once a comparative curio on the elite flat racing circuit is a growing neutral stage for intercontinental competition.
Liberty Island chased home Equinox in November’s Japan Cup and represents a formidable challenge to the big Irish hope in a 12-strong field that also includes the English star Emily Upjohn and Junko from France.
It is a clash that would do justice to any top European contest at the height of summer and represents perhaps the ultimate test faced by Auguste Rodin to date.
“He’s so important to the breed of the thoroughbred. He brings together the best of Japan and Europe — the best of two continents — and it’s fair to say he’s one of the most important and exciting horses we have ever had. He really does have a chance of exerting a huge influence on future racehorses,” O’Brien said.
Point Lonsdale accompanies Auguste Rodin in the Sheema, while Ballydoyle will also be doubly represented in the UAE Derby with Henry Adams and Navy Seal.
Luxembourg and Cairo will try to deny Lord North a remarkable fourth success in the nine-furlong Turf event at 3.10pm but perhaps O’Brien’s other best chance is when Tower Of London tries to emulate Broome’s success a year ago in the two-mile Gold Cup.
About 6,000km, and nearly €26 million in prize money, separates Meydan and Fairyhouse but the three-day Easter festival action still holds a trump card in terms of tradition.
Over €1.5 million in prize money will be up for grabs when the festival starts on Saturday after the final field for Ireland’s richest jumps has been decided.
This year’s early Easter is among a confluence of factors that threaten to produce the smallest National field in well over a decade. Very testing ground conditions could also play a part, as will the timing of it being just a fortnight since Cheltenham.
Saturday’s featured €100,000 Rybo Handicap Hurdle has just a dozen starters including last year’s winner Risk Belle. There will be no greater dearth of runners on a busy Easter programme than the match race for Cork’s Grade Three feature on Sunday.
In numerical terms alone Easter Sunday’s Honeysuckle Novice Hurdle, one of a pair of Grade Ones at Fairyhouse, stands out with a large field of 18, although a remarkable 10 of them are trained by Aidan O’Brien
Henry de Bromhead has four runners, Gavin Cromwell two, and a welcome cross-channel raider with a hopeful name considering weather conditions — Springtime Promise — is sent by Fergal O’Brien.
Despite the heavyweight squads ranged against her, Jessica Harrington’s strategy of skipping Cheltenham with Jetara to wait for this top-flight prize can pay off.
Sunday’s other Grade One, the WillowWarm Gold Cup, has Mullins aiming at a sixth win in a row in the race that features Gold Cup recent heroes Galopin Des Champs and Al Boum Photo on its roll of honour.
Blood Destiny and Spillane’s Tower are one each in their private rivalry, although this trip and these ground conditions could favour the latter this time.
The race was formerly known as the Powers Gold Cup and its runner-up in 2001 was no less than Limestone Lad, one of the most popular Irish racehorses of the modern era, who has died this week at the ripe old age of 32.
Owned, bred and trained by the Bowe family, Limestone Lad won 35 of his 65 races, including famously beating Istabraq in the 1999 Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse.
