Bookmakers reckon time is running out for Billy Lee’s rivals to chase him down in the race to be Ireland’s champion jockey for 2026.
With just six weeks of the season left, Lee is a 2/5 favourite with Paddy Power to secure a first title success. He is currently on 78 winners for the campaign, seven clear of Colin Keane. Lee has finished runner-up to Keane three times, including when losing by just three in 2022.
Reigning champion Dylan Browne McMonagle is on 61 and remains on the sidelines after a fall at Bellewstown a month ago.
Some of those involved in championship contests traditionally used to deflect attention on the title picture by saying they would only think of it by the time Listowel rolled around.
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The Harvest Festival is under way and there is flat action at Listowel on Monday. However, both Lee and Keane will be at Fairyhouse on a crammed Monday of flat racing.
Listowel began on Sunday with a National Hunt programme and Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) pointed to the Co Kerry track’s wish to start their festival with a jumping card. It also said a Monday date allows “a degree of separation around race meeting commencement times”. Fairyhouse starts at 3.50pm while Listowel’s opener is at 1.23pm.
“Tattersalls have a sale beginning on Tuesday which restricts us pushing Fairyhouse into a date later in the week,” a HRI spokesman also commented. The Tattersalls Yearling Sale starts across the road from Fairyhouse on Tuesday.
The Listed Castlebridge Blenheim Stakes is the Fairyhouse feature, where Lee is on board Big Negotiator for Paddy Twomey and Keane is on Livenka for his Juddmonte employers.
A field of 11 also includes an English raider in Lola De Valence, a Nottingham winner for trainer Rod Millman, while Aidan O’Brien sends Marco Polo to the six-furlong juvenile contest. That colt justified very short odds in a Cork maiden last time.
A forecast of quick ground conditions could prove crucial to Livenka’s chance. Keane reported her to be unsuited to easier going in the Curragh’s Round Tower last time where the half-sister to Group One winner Babouche wound up drifting to the stands’ rail.
With an inside draw to help her here, and proven course and distance winning form under her belt, Livenka looks the one to beat.
Listowel’s own €50,000 feature is a mile and a half handicap where much softer going could help Sharkeyboy’s chance of scoring for Willie Mullins.
Joseph O’Brien has Obscenity in Listowel’s highlight – and Nail House in the Blenheim – among nine runners divided between the two fixtures.
However, it is the prospect of O’Brien having up to 10 runners in the Melbourne Cup in November that is exercising minds in Australia.
Already twice a winner of the race that famously stops a nation, O’Brien has made 11 entries for the Flemington race and has already engaged top Australian jockey Craig Williams for the Epsom Derby third, James J Braddock.
With the recent St Leger winner Highwayman and last year’s runner-up Goodie Two Shoes also among those likely to be on the plane heading down under, O’Brien’s strength in depth means he is priced at just 7/4 to win the race for a third time.
“The second quarantine hasn’t started yet so we still have to get there. Of the ones that we have entered, they are all being programmed towards the race,” O’Brien said.
“Omni Man and Starford are going to run in the Caulfield Cup, so they are going down on the first shipment. Kizlyar and Small Fry are both going down in the first shipment as well because they probably need to win in Australia to get into the race. The other ones are on the second shipment with the intention of going there.
“Craig Williams is booked for James J Braddock. Aziz Kheir [part owner] got that sorted during the week. The other ones are undecided as yet. Highwayman is the obvious one given he is on the back of a Group One win, but he has plenty of weight for a three-year-old.”
In other news, English trainer Ed Walker had admitted to regrets about running his Group One winner Almaqam in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.
The five-year-old star could finish only fourth to the shock 50/1 winner Hotazhell on ground that Walker believes wasn’t soft enough to suit. Before that, Almaqam had been beaten a head by Item in York’s Juddmonte International.
“The ground was quicker than I wanted it to be at Leopardstown. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have run him and gone straight to Ascot, which was the plan after York,” he said.
“The track at Leopardstown was a bit sharper than I remembered as I hadn’t been there for a long time and he just got a bit lost between the four and the two pole. All the signs at home were so positive that we got tempted into it. He seems fine and although he is in the Arc we will head to the Champion Stakes now.
“If he does what he did at York he will be hard to beat. He has only really had soft a few times in his career, which is frustrating.”
