Ryan Moore tackles new territory on Tuesday when he has a pair of rides for Aidan O’Brien at Punchestown.
One of the world’s top flat race jockeys visits the home of National Hunt racing which hosts an eight-race card on the level.
Flat racing returned to Punchestown in 2020 after an 18-year hiatus although it had hosted some top names in the past such as O’Brien’s dual-Derby hero High Chaparral who was second on his debut there in 2001.
Moore rides Mint Candy in the opening maiden for fillies and quickly follows up with another juvenile in Genealogy. He chased home stable companion Acapulco Bay on his Curragh debut and could progress from that enough to cope with Ger Lyons’s Storm Piece.
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The Jim Bolger string has endured a lengthy absence from the winners’ enclosure, but Ard Na Mara might change that in a later maiden. Her Curragh second to Fighter looks a good effort now on the back of the latter’s impressive victory at Leopardstown on Saturday.
In other news, veteran French trainer André Fabre has a prime opportunity to score a record-extending ninth success in next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Sunday’s Longchamp winner, Sosie.
The colt went to the top of the Arc betting with an impressive Prix Niel victory and Fabre will be looking to win Europe’s greatest all-aged prize in a fifth decade. He first won the Arc with the Pat Eddery-ridden Trempolino in 1987. The last of his eight winners was Waldgeist in 2019.
“I think it is very important for them to have as easy a race as possible before the Arc and he didn’t appear to have to work too hard, so I was pleased,” said the 78-year-old French man.
“I do think he is a better horse on good ground but as horses get older and mature, they are able to cope with softer ground better. But like everyone, I would prefer a good surface. You never know with Longchamp, last year it was quick ground for the Arc.
“I think it’s a very open race and I think he deserves to be in the first three. Whether he can win is another question. I think the generation of three-year-olds is not exceptional this year.,” he added.
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