The burst of speed and power that carried Gleneagles into the lead in the St James’s Palace Stakes here on Tuesday confirmed beyond doubt he is the best three-year-old miler in Europe, but one question still lingered after his victory. Was this Aidan O’Brien’s 44th Royal Ascot winner, or his son Joseph’s first?
O’Brien Sr has always stressed the importance of the team effort at his Ballydoyle stable after any major victory, but even so, his determination to pass the credit for Gleneagles’ outstanding season to his oldest son was striking.
“Joseph said before the race that he had him better today than at any stage, which was pleasing to hear,” O’Brien said. “He does everything with the horse and he wouldn’t say that lightly.
“I’m just a small part of a very big team, and privileged to be able to play a part. I’m getting older now and the younger lads are coming on. I’m watching more and going with the flow. I’m 45 and it’s great to see younger people coming along and taking responsibility. I just stand at the top of the gallops and watch the work, which is good for me, and a lot less pressure.”
Gleneagles’ victory was as straightforward as his starting price of 8-15 suggested it should be. The money riding on his chance included a single bet of £150,000 to win £80,000, and the payout was as good as banked from start to finish. Ryan Moore, who replaced Joseph O’Brien as the stable’s main jockey at the start of the season, settled his colt three lengths off the pace as Consort and Frankie Dettori cut out the running, and then opened a decisive lead approaching the furlong pole as Make Believe, the French 2,000 Guineas winner, weakened abruptly to finished last of the five runners.
O’Brien gave no hint he intends to hand in his licence any time soon. Yet even after a success that was as routine as they come at this level, it was clear from O’Brien’s comments that the day-to-day pressure of caring for horses that are bred and expected to be champions has taken a toll.
“He’s doing a lot more now and I’m watching,” O’Brien said. “They [his four children] are all getting older and bigger and know a lot about everything and it’s a big team.
“They are grabbing it and I’m not stopping them, I’m giving it. I might live a bit longer then. Anything they want, they can have it, and I’m very happy to be sitting in the back seat, believe me.
“We [O’Brien and his wife Annemarie] have done this for 20 years, hard graft day in and day out. Maybe next year at Ascot we might be able to stay here an odd night. That’s the reality, we’re over and back every day, we never stay anywhere. Maybe shortly we might be able to start doing stuff like that, living normal lives. I’ve never seen any of the cities that we go to, I go racing and go back home.”
This has already been a year of transition for Ballydoyle with Moore taking over as the stable jockey, and Gleneagles has now emerged as the clear leader among the yard’s horses. His main contenders for the Derby, a race O’Brien had won three times in a row from 2012, fell by the wayside during the spring’s series of Classic trials, and Gleneagles appears to be the only potentially high-class recruit to the Coolmore Stud’s stallion roster from this year’s crop.
“It’s been vital, he’s a star horse,” O’Brien said. “Our other horses did disappoint but if they don’t get it together the rest of the year, they might stay in training next year, and that would be a big advantage to us because we had no four-year-olds this year and it’s a big strain on the three-year-olds.”
Gleneagles could step up to a mile-and-a-quarter in the Irish Champion Stakes in early September but first he is likely to run in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood in early August, a race that is also the target for Solow, the winner of the Queen Anne Stakes, Tuesday’s opener.
Solow did not quite produce the form of his outstanding success on World Cup night in Dubai back in March, but with Able Friend, the best miler in Hong Kong and his main market rival, running below form to finish sixth, it was good enough to take Solow’s winning streak to seven races, including three Group Ones.
“He’s a fantastic horse, a great warrior who can do anything, he can wait, he can lead,” Freddy Head, the winner’s trainer, said. “I hope he lasts and we’ve got many more years for him.
“Maybe we will come back for the Sussex at Goodwood. I’m not going to run everything that comes because I want him to last, so I’m not sure we’re going to go to America [for the Breeders’ Cup Mile] this year. I’m not very fond of the Keeneland racetrack [which will stage this year’s event], I think it’s a little tight.”
Robert Cowell, who consistently produces top-class sprinters from a relatively small string, took the Group One King’s Stand Stakes for the second time in five seasons when Goldream edged out Medicean Man and Muthmir in a blanket finish.
Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation got on the board for the meeting when Buratino won the Group Two Coventry Stakes for Mark Johnston with another Godolphin runner, the warm favourite Round Two, well beaten. Moore completed a treble in the last three as he followed up his win on Gleneagles aboard the Willie Mullins-trained Clondaw Warrior and O’Brien’s colt Washington DC in the Ascot Stakes and Windsor Castle Stakes respectively.
