Considering much of the pre-race chat was whether Minnie Hauk might start the shortest priced classic runner ever, Saturday’s Juddmonte Irish Oaks turned out to be much more exciting than many had anticipated.
Ultimately Aidan O’Brien’s eighth winner of the race, and the 16th filly to complete the Epsom-Curragh Oaks double, won a shade cosily.
But those who bet the 2/11 SP must have been momentarily shifting uneasily in the straight as Ryan Moore started to scrub on the hotpot while Dylan Browne McMonagle was motionless in front of him on Wemightakedlongway.
The latter was fourth at Epsom and a change of tactics briefly looked like paying off only for Minnie Hauk to ultimately come through and win by just over a length.
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If there was a rather underwhelming feel to the performance, she did at least land her cramped odds. O’Brien’s Order Of St George was famously beaten at 1/7 in the 2016 Irish Leger, a race that Yeats also got beaten in at 2/7 in 2006.
In the end Australia’s record 1/8 price when landing the 2014 Curragh Derby was unchallenged and his awkwardly named daughter, Wemightakedlongway, momentarily underlined the dangers of betting very short.
Having narrowly beaten her stable companion Whirl at Epsom, the charitable take on Saturday’s double display was that Minnie Hauk might not do it prettily but does consistently pull off the all-important feat of winning.
Moore said he was never worried, although Browne McMonagle’s tactical shift appeared to be a surprise.
“I just had to wake her up to get past Dylan, a little bit like at the Oaks at Epsom. She’d be quite deceptive. She’s become more professional and at least we’ve learned a little bit more about her today.
“There’s probably no doubt that it was a weak running of an Oaks. I’m happy with her and I’m sure she is going to go on to better things as well.
“When I asked her, she switched her lead and went and done it. At Chester at the start of the year she only won by a length, she just timed herself. When she got to the front at Epsom, she went asleep on me again. We are learning about her, and she’ll be better than this,” reassured the English rider.
O’Brien quickly added that the best of the €1.85 million 2023 Orby sales-topper won’t be seen until she gets a very high race tempo to target.
Afterwards, the Ballydoyle brains trust debated a potential route towards October’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, with either the Yorkshire Oaks or the Prix Vermeille apparently to the fore as possible trials.
“The boss (John Magnier) asked Ryan where to go with her and he said to go to the Yorkshire Oaks. The boss said ‘what about if we give her a break and train her for the Vermeille and give her a French Arc prep?’ All those things are open, and we’ll see how she is.
“I think she can do either of those things but if she’s going to the French trial she’d have to have a couple of easy weeks. Obviously if she’s going to York she wouldn’t have those couple of easy weeks,” O’Brien commented.
The immediate dividend though was a seventh classic of the year for the trainer and an 11th Group One success in all.
Having briefly threatened to spoil the short-priced Oaks party, Dylan Browne McMonagle later hit the mark on his own odds-on favourite Al Riffa in the Group Two Curragh Cup.
The dual-Group One winner made light of the step up to 14-furlongs and quickened past inferior rivals to set up a tilt at the Irish Leger in September.
Joseph O’Brien, twice a Melbourne Cup winner, didn’t rule out a tilt at the Flemington highlight either with a colt who was classy enough to land a National Stakes as a two-year-old.
Proud of Wemighttakedlongway’s classic effort – “Minnie Hauk is a champion, and we gave her a fright for a few seconds” – O’Brien is also eyeing a profitable autumn with Al Riffa.
Earlier on the classic programme, True Love’s 1-2 odds were comparatively generous when she made no mistake in kicking right away from three colts in the Group Two Gain Railway Stakes.
The Queen Mary winner had no trouble stepping up a furlong and proved five lengths too good for her stable companion Puerto Rico.
Having proven her credentials for the trip, O’Brien nominated potential targets in the Phoenix Stakes back at HQ, Deauville for the Prix Morny, and Newmarket’s Cheveley Park Stakes.
True Love was the first filly to win the Railway in 27 years and having successfully led the Ballydoyle juvenile bandwagon here may end up taking on colts again later this campaign.
O’Brien indicated his exciting Albert Einstein “probably” won’t run again this season. That leaves the Coventry winner Gstaad – who beat True Love in his maiden – as his most likely top colt to go to war with later this summer.
As well as the Phoenix and the Morny, Gstaad’s ambitions could also see him aimed at seven-furlong contests in the National Stakes and the Dewhurst.
However, the dangers of planning too far ahead also got underlined on Saturday when O’Brien revealed doubts about last year’s champion juvenile filly Lake Victoria even racing again.
Out of action since landing the Irish Guineas in May, he said: “She is not back in exercise yet. She’s doing very well physically, but she’s not back in work yet.
“John (Halley, vet) will make the decision on whether she comes back into work for this year or is left alone until next year, or is retired altogether. They’ll be decisions that will be made as weeks go by.”
O’Brien opened Saturday’s card with a 1-2-3 in the juvenile maiden where the odds-on New Zealand won by a nose from the eye-catching newcomer Isaac Newton.
The sprinting division is often Irish racing’s poor relation but there could be a real top-notcher in Ireland for a change as Arizona Blaze continued his progress up the ranks and landed the Group Two Barberstown Cstle Sapphire Stakes.
Runner up in Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup, and at last year’s Breeders’ Cup, the AMO Racing colt dropped to the minimum distance and proved too quick for the English raider Mgheera.
David Egan, whose sister Alexandra rode her first winner at Down Royal on Friday evening, dominated from the front on the winner and a potential tilt at York’s Nunthorpe next month could be another shot at a top-level success.
AMO’s big-spending owner Kia Joorabchian was present at the Curragh to watch the colt and expressed confidence that a top-flight victory is within Arizona Blaze’s grasp.
“He’s been professional all the way. He loves five and can go six and seven. He loves the five furlongs and hopefully we’ll have a lot more fun with him,” he said. “I think we’ll aim for the Breeders’ Cup. I think he’ll get a Group 1 somewhere.”
