Colin Keane rode a double on the card at the Curragh on Sunday to move four winners clear of Shane Foley in the race for the Irish Flat jockeys’ championship, including a 21st Group race victory in 2020 on Helvic Dream. The more significant of his two victories, however, could yet prove to be that of Khartoum in the opening maiden: Keane’s first winner for Aidan O’Brien, on only his second start for Ireland’s most powerful stable.
Keane was Ireland’s champion jockey in 2017 and finished the season as runner-up behind Donnacha O’Brien, the trainer’s son, in both 2018 and 2019. His only previous ride for Ballydoyle before Sunday, though, was on an unplaced 25-1 chance at Naas last November.
Khartoum, who has an entry in the Group One Vertem Futurity at Doncaster, set off as 2-1 favourite on Sunday and made short work of his field, winning by two-and-a-quarter lengths. Keane was unplaced, however, on O’Brien’s Preamble, the 9-4 favourite for the Group Three Anglesey Stakes, and beat only three home on the stable’s Shoshone Warrior in the Irish Cesarewitch.
Seamie Heffernan, who has been the Ballydoyle No 2 since the mid-90s days when Christy Roche was the senior rider, was suspended on Sunday, but O’Brien would still have had several alternatives for his main hopes on the Curragh card.
Keane’s first winner for the trainer, meanwhile, also arrived just 24 hours after Ryan Moore, O’Brien’s official No 1 since the spring of 2015, found himself on the “wrong” Ballydoyle horse in a Group One for the second time in a month, as Frankie Dettori steered St Mark’s Basilica to victory in the Dewhurst Stakes, with Moore aboard the runner-up, Wembley.
Taken as a whole, his six seasons as Ballydoyle’s No 1 have included many of the best years of O’Brien’s career, including 2017, when the stable set a new world record of 28 Group One or Grade One winners. But as veteran Ballydoyle-watchers will know, six seasons is already a record tenure in a role from which previous incumbents, much like Spinal Tap’s drummers, have often made abrupt and unexpected departures.
Moore has ridden nearly 120 Group One or Grade One winners in his career, including 75 for Aidan O’Brien and two this season for Donnacha O’Brien, and could well ride several more before the turn of the year.
But there is a slowly-growing sense of change around the entire Coolmore operation, not least as Joseph and Donnacha O’Brien continue to build successful training careers of their own with almost indecent haste. And that can only add to the excitement and fascination over the next few weeks as the Flat season draws to a close.
Monday’s best bets
Musselburgh has the best of the ground – it is officially good-to-soft on the East Lothian coast – and by a happy coincidence, the best of the racing too, including a seven-furlong handicap with £12,500 to the winner with no end of possibilities to consider.
Three horses were vying for favouritism at around 5-1 overnight but the splendidly consistent Marshal Dan (2.30) has now emerged as the punters’ pick and he is still worth an interest at the current 4-1. Heather Main’s gelding must be a dream to own, having made the frame in 15 of his 27 starts including six wins, he goes on any ground and has taken his form to a new level this season with two wins, a second and two third places from five starts. Marshal Dan may not have the scope of his some of his younger rivals but a repeat of any of his runs this year would probably be enough and the excellent Ray Dawson, who rides him for the first time, takes a very useful 5lb off his back.
Ventura Flame (3.30) put up a career-best to win at Hamilton last month and is a big price at around 6-1, while Mansfield (4.00) is a big price at around 10-1 to reverse recent course-and-distance form with favourite Northern Society on 6lb better terms.
Yarmouth 12.45 Aaddeey, 1.15 Son Of Red, 1.50 Powhatan, 2.23 Currency Exchange, 2.53 Sonderbar, 3.23 True Belief, 3.53 James Park Woods, 4.25 Proclaimer
Musselburgh 1.00 My Macho Man, 1.30 La Voix Magique, 2.00 Danzeno, 2.30 Marshal Dan (nap), 3.00 Amazing Alba, 3.30 Ventura Flame (nb), 4.00 Mansfield, 4.30 Dreamseller
Windsor 1.40 Angels Roc, 2.10 Shanghai Rock, 2.40 Prince Of Bel Lir, 3.10 Ice Station Zebra, 3.40 Field Of Vision, 4.10 Divine Queen, 4.40 Thorn, 5.10 Mars Landing, 5.40 Elegant Love
Wolverhampton 5.00 Liberty Bay, 5.30 Candescence, 6.00 Sur Mer, 6.30 Cinnabar, 7.00 Brazen Bolt, 7.30 Poet’s Magic, 8.00 Frankly Mr Shankly, 8.30 London Eye
Sonderbar (2.53) has a fair claim in the nursery at Yarmouth, while Ice Station Zebra (3.10) and Field Of Vision (3.40) both hold strong chances on the card at Windsor.
