Aidan O’Brien’s fantastic day at Leopardstown continued in the featured Group 1 Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes when his Cape Blanco under Seamie Heffernan, made all, to lead home a Ballydoyle 1-2-4.
Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco made all and had the field well stretched entering the straight, staying on well in the final furlong to record a five and a half lengths win over stablemate and 8/11 favourite Rip Van Winkle Third placed Twice Over interrupted a Ballydoyle clean-sweep, with Beethoven finishing fourth.
Afterwards O’Brien, winning the race for the sixth time and completing a four-timer on the day, stated “Seamus gave Cape Blanco a great ride and got the horse into a great rhythm.”
“We always thought he was an unbelievably classy horse and he is more a 10 furlong horse than a mile and a half horse. He has lots of speed and, realistically, his courage made him last out the mile and a half trip in the Irish Derby. He moves brilliantly and has lots of options now including the English Champion Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup in America.”
Regarding Rip Van Winkle, O’Brien stated “Rip is a real miler with lots of speed who just about gets 1m2f. We had to take our time and relax him today and the ground was plenty on the slow side for him too. Beethoven, is similar to Rip, as he is a real miler with plenty of pace, but ran a stormer but will now drop back to one mile.”
Henry Cecil, trainer of third placed Twice Over, reported “I am a bit disappointed that he didn’t pick up the way I thought he would and I have no excuse with ground as I thought he like it. He wouldn’t have beaten the winner on a good day though.”
