Winning connections of Delacroix. (Breandán Ó hUallacháin Photo)
Trainer Aidan O’Brien dominated classic trials day at Leopardstown on Sunday
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Henri Matisse wins
Belmont Stakes-winning handler Weld takes fillies’ trial
By Breandán Ó hUallacháin
Trainer Aidan O’Brien dominated classic trials day at Leopardstown, Ireland, on Sunday, winning two of the three Group 3 contests.
The Ballydoyle handler’s Delacroix (4/7 favourite), a potential Epsom Derby contender, won the P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes (Group 3) on his seasonal reappearance under jockey Ryan Moore.
The three-year-old son of Dubawi was a nose second to Hotazhell in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes at Doncaster, England, last season, and came into today’s race with two wins and two runner-up spots from four career starts.
The Coolmore partners-owned bay stretched the field in the home stretch to claim an impressive two and a quarter-length victory.
Another O’Brien-handled colt, also carrying the Coolmore partners’ colours, Lambourn (9/1), ran on well into second place, in the one mile two furlongs race.
The visual impression would suggest that both the winner and runner-up will be suited to the longer distance of the one mile four-furlong Epsom Derby. Both are by middle distance stallions, Dubawi and Australia, adding further to the suggestion that they would be suited to Epsom, or the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at The Curragh at the end of June.
“You’d have to be very happy,” the winning handler stated of the 12th horse he has trained to succeed in this contest. “He was always babyish [immature], and still is babyish, but is growing up. He is coming along lovely – he’s going to be a lovely horse.
“He is classy. The race will only help him, I think. We’re very happy with him- we always thought he would stay well. He is a fine, big powerful horse. He will improve plenty fitness-wise. We are only trying to teach him. He is a big classy horse.”
When asked where the handler considered him in terms of the pecking order for his three-year-olds, O’Brien replied:
“We always thought middle distance was where he was going to be. He is still a baby but has a good mind. I think you would have to be very happy with him. He quickened well in the straight, and he isn’t a horse that will over-race either.”
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Henri Matisse wins
The other Group 3 victory for O’Brien came in the Balllylinch Stud ‘Red Rocks’ Stakes when 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Henri Matisse (6/4 favourite) scored a half-length success over his stablemate Commanche Brave (22/1). Arizona Blaze (7/4), a top-class juvenile sprinter last season, was third for rider David Egan, trainer Adrian Murray and owners AMO Racing Limited and Giselle De Aguiar, another half-length further back.
Both winner and runner-up raced in the colours of the Coolmore partners, with the Del Mar winner from last November, Henri Matisse, coming home in the hands of Ryan Moore.
“He doesn’t want to get there early, anyway. He wants to get there late. He did well because it was a good gallop. He’s going to improve a good bit with fitness, so you would have to be very happy with him,” said O’Brien of his 11th winner of the race.
“Ryan (Moore) said he (Henri Matisse) was a little shocked [by the pace of the race] because our horses were only doing half-speeds at home; they haven’t been let down. On the quick ground they went a good gallop. Ryan said he would be a bit more comfortable going up to a mile. He’s obviously a very smart horse and quickens well,” the Ballydoyle handler concluded, as he claimed a seventh victory in the last 11 editions of the Group 3 seven-furlong race.
Belmont Stakes-winning handler takes fillies’ trial
The other classic trial at Leopardstown on Sunday was the Ballylinch Stud ‘Priory Belle’ Stakes for fillies. The race, over seven-furlongs, is a 1000 Guineas trial.
Former Belmont Stakes-winning trainer Dermot Weld denied the Ballydoyle team a trio of Group 3 successes when Swelter (6/1) ran out a one a quarter-length winner.
Ridden by Weld’s stable jockey Chris Hayes, it was only a second racecourse appearance for the daughter of Juddmonte Farms’ sire Kingman. A winner over the course on her previous run last July, the Juddmonte-owned three-year-old bay filly held off the challenges of Exactly (5/6 favourite) for Ryan Moore and Aidan O’Brien, and Cercene (28/1) for jockey Gary Carroll and handler Joseph Murphy.
Weld, who famously won the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes with Go And Go in 1990, said of today’s winner, Swelter:
“It was a good renewal of the race, I’d say – it was very competitive for a Group 3. I was delighted with her because it was only her second start. She was the only filly in the race who had only one run – she won over a mile here last year.
“My concern was that seven [furlongs] might be a little bit too sharp for her, but my reason for running her was that she would learn a lot from it. It’s a lovely track for a filly to learn on, and I thought she came home very nicely.”
The Rosewell House trainer later suggested the Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh in May would be the filly’s more likely target, rather than the English equivalent at Newmarket earlier that month.
