Bradsell and Hollie Doyle score in the Flying Five (Breandán Ó hUallacháin)
By Breandán Ó hUallacháin
Hollie Doyle and Bradsell (2/1 favourite) led a British-trained domination of the Group 1 Bar One Racing Flying Five at The Curragh, Ireland, on Sunday.
Trained in England by Archie Watson, the previous dual Group 1 winner, was a first ever winner in Ireland for Hollie Doyle.
Doyle, the English-born daughter of Mark Doyle, a former jockey from County Tipperary, Ireland, recently registered her 1,000th victory as a rider.
Bradsell, winner of the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes at York, England, on 23 August, was achieving a third consecutive triumph, having won the Listed Prix du Cercle – Prix Hipodroma de la Gavea at Deauville, France, prior to his York success.
The four-year-old son of Tasleet, owned by Victorious Racing, looked the winner a good distance from the Curragh’s finishing post, putting two previous sub-par efforts at the headquarters of Irish flat racing firmly behind him.
Believing (7/2) and Ryan Moore claimed the runner-up spot in the Bar One Racing Flying Five, one a quarter lengths behind the winner. Makarova (28/1) was next past the wire for trainer Ed Walker and jockey Tom Marquand, the husband of the winning race rider, Hollie Doyle.
“He’s so special,” said a delighted winning rider, Hollie Doyle. “He just dominated them. I’m always confident when I’m riding him but his track record hasn’t been great here, which was a little bit of a worry. He’s just improved and improved and proven today he’s one of the best sprinters around.
“He bangs out of the stalls, you can fill him up, hold onto him. He’s got a good turn of foot and he tries real hard.”
“I was happy to have the two to aim at,” Doyle admitted, “and I knew when I pushed the button he’d give me all he could but it’s a stiff five here so I was just trying to hold onto him as long as I can. He has been our flagbearer this year and long may it continue.”
The successful handler, Archie Watson, for whom it was a fifth career Group 1 winner, said:
“I was surprised this morning there was a bit of negativity about the horse. I thought he was by far the best sprinter around and I hope he’s showing people that he is. He’s just got so much speed, he’s so fast and so tough and just a pleasure to have anything to do with.”
“He’s got quicker,” Watson acknowledged. “At the beginning of last year we were thinking, ‘He’s won a Coventry over a stiff six,’ and were going down the Commonwealth Cup route. I didn’t even have him in the King’s Stand. He wasn’t really finishing off over six. Luckily, we were able to supplement him in the King’s Stand and it’s been five since then.”
The happy winning conditioner then discussed future plans for Bradsell, stating:
“It is his trip [five furlongs]. I wouldn’t mind trying an easy six but I don’t see why. He’s so good at five, there are plenty Group 1s to run in. There’s two more obvious races – there’s the Abbaye [Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp in October] but I wouldn’t want it to be horrible ground and the draw stupid. And the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar should be right up his street. One or both of those would be the plan.
“Hollie came to me a few years ago and we’ve both grown together. Any winner, let alone a Group 1 winner, means a lot more when it’s the two of us, when it’s her riding for me. It’s great.”
Bradsell now has a race record of six wins and three place finishes from 11 career starts.
Irish Champions Festival 2024 was a very successful venture for Hollie Doyle and her husband, Tom Marquand, as he won the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes aboard Economics on Saturday, the second part of a Group 1 double for the English jockey who had earlier taken the Group 1 Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes on the Donnacha O’Brien-handled US-owned Porta Fortuna.
