Trainer Michael O’Callaghan has a first Group One success in his sights with star two-year-old Push The Boat Out on track to put his unbeaten record on the line in Saturday’s Tattersalls Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.
Push The Boat Out is part of what’s shaping into an in-depth Irish raiding party on Newmarket, where Saturday’s other top-flight contest up for grabs is the Cheveley Park Stakes for juvenile fillies.
It is set to feature a mouthwatering clash between Aidan O’Brien’s “freakish” filly Sun Goddess and the top cross-channel pair Libertango and Senorita Bonita. Joseph O’Brien’s pair Star Of State and Alwaysanangel as well as Robson de Aguiar’s Controlla are other potential starters.
There’s even more of an Irish flavour to the Middle Park with eight of the 11 entries after Monday’s acceptance stage based in this country.
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They include Joseph O’Brien’s six-length National Stakes winner Folsom Blues and Great Barrier Reef, who tops a handful of Ballydoyle hopes. De Aguiar has left in Force Noir.
However, O’Callaghan’s big hope is another intriguing angle to the historic six-furlong contest. The grey son of Kodi Bear, an 85,000 guineas (just over €100,000) breeze purchase, followed up his Curragh debut victory with a Group Three Round Tower success back at HQ when beating Great Barrier Reef by a neck. The latter conceded 5lbs.
Afterwards Push The Boat Out was bought by the Zhang family’s Ace Stud, and its number one rider, Shane Foley, will team up with the colt for the first time on Saturday. Foley’s 11-day suspension for his Irish Champion Stakes winning ride on Hotazhell starts the next day.
It opens the prospect of a landmark victory at the top level for O’Callaghan, who has enjoyed a productive season to date with his two-year-olds. Celeron, who cost £20,000 (€23,000), landed July’s Group Two Railway Stakes. O’Callaghan saddled his first-ever winner in 2012.
“It would be massive to win a Group One. It’s the metric that every ambitious trainer wants to win,” the Kildare-based handler said on Monday. “He’s a very good horse. He’s beaten the favourite before, so he goes there with a live chance. He’s a very balanced colt. Until we try it, we don’t know but I don’t foresee any issues with the track.”
Among other likely opposition is the Norfolk Stakes winner Orthodox and Inner City Blues from the in-form Godolphin team. The latter won the July Stakes on his last start.
“I worked him last week up at Newmarket and he worked well. I was pleased and he needed it as well as he’s been dormant since the July Stakes,” trainer Charlie Appleby said. “That has definitely brought him forward and from what I’ve seen the last week he’s definitely back on his A game.”
Folsom Blues was a surprise entry for the Middle Park having progressed for the step up to seven furlongs and trounced his stable companion Monogram to the tune of six lengths just over a week ago.
Another outstanding winner at the Irish Champions Festival was Sun Goddess, who routed her opposition in the Moyglare. She’s also set to drop back a furlong in trip for the Cheveley Park and try to complete a double that Lake Victoria managed in 2024.
Since a defeat at Royal Ascot, Sun Goddess is unbeaten in four starts including last month’s Phoenix Stakes and a hugely impressive victory in a valuable sales race at York when overcoming significant interference through the race.
Aidan O’Brien has won the Cheveley Park six times in all, including a year ago with the subsequent 1,000 guineas winner True Love.
There could also be Irish interest in Saturday’s big betting heat at Newmarket, the bet365 Cambridgeshire, as Ado McGuinness has left Pierre Royal among the 35 potential starters. Third in the Irish Cambridgeshire last month, Pierre Royal may try to emulate She’s Our Mare, a rare Irish winner of the famous nine-furlong handicap in 1999.
In other news, last year’s Epsom Derby runner-up Lazy Griff has had to be euthanised following an injury he picked up in his last race at Chester last month. The Mark Johnston-trained colt was also placed third in last year’s Irish Derby at the Curragh.
