Billy Lee will be in action at Down Royal on Monday on the back of a weekend that may have clinched him a first champion jockey title.
A single winner at the Curragh on Saturday took Lee to 84 for the campaign and stretched his lead over Colin Keane to 12. It prompted Paddy Power to make Lee a 1/6 favourite to be crowned champion when the season ends in just over a month.
It didn’t hurt his bank balance that the winner was Trean in the Goffs Million – Europe’s richest two-year-old race – with a first prize of a cool €500,000 to connections of the Paddy Twomey trained colt. It was a 1-2 for Twomey who also saddled the 80/1 runner up Hit Corbett Court.
Keane, the six-times champion, had a mountain to climb anyway but it got even steeper as he picked up a three-day careless riding suspension on Saturday. Lee (40) has been runner-up in the championship three times to Keane, including when losing by just three winners in 2022.
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Lee has six rides at Down Royal but Keane’s Juddmonte retainer means he has to travel to Wolverhampton for a couple of rides on Monday, leaving the coast clear for his rival to extend the margin.
Willie Mullins ended the Listowel Harvest Festival with a record-equalling 11 winners that included Ballygunner Castle in Wednesday’s featured Guinness Kerry National. The tally equalled Dermot Weld’s haul from 1994, when it was a six-day festival. Paul Townend collected the leading jockey award for the week.
Mullins and Townend combine for the likely odds-on favourite Daddy Long Legs in Monday’s Grade feature at Roscommon, the €42,000 Ballymore Group Kilbegnet Novice Chase.
The 150-rated hurdler impressed on his first start over fences at Killarney when making all to beat a smart pair in Putapoundinthejar and Bowensonfire. A similarly dominant performance is likely against four opponents.
Separately, France’s champion trainer Francis Graffard got an ideal Group One boost in advance of next weekend’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when one of his stalwart geldings, Goliath, landed the 64th Preis von Europa at Cologne.
The 2025 King hero made all under Christophe Soumillon to beat another globetrotting gelding in Dubai Honour.
The success of Goliath and his stable companion Calandagan in recent years proved a big factor in the decision to allow geldings run in the Arc from next year. Graffard has the defending Arc champion in Daryz and he’s pondering worldwide options for Goliath including a crack at the Hong Kong Vase in December. Last year he was third to Sosie in the race.
“He’s a lovely horse and the pet of the stable. Everybody loves him and I think he is a very famous horse now worldwide because of the way he walks [stringhalt] and his character,” Graffard reported.
“Today it was very nice to see him winning so easily. We knew there was nobody to go in front really, so we decided to jump well as he’s a horse you don’t want to upset at the beginning of the race.
“When I saw him in front, nice and relaxed with his ears pricked, I thought he was going to run a big race. He quickened nicely and won comfortably – it was a bit like when he won the King George two years ago.
“It was nice to see him like this, it will be very good for his mind and his temperament, he can feel really strong again.
“He has all the options worldwide, but I need to discuss with the owners. He will travel either east or west. He did very well in Hong Kong last December, so that is probably an option too,” he added.
