When Balanchine crossed the line in the Irish Derby in 1994, Hilal Ibrahim’s filly was one of the first major winners for the nascent Godolphin racing operation and also the eighth British-trained horse to win the race in the space of nine years. Twenty-one years later, Balanchine remains the most recent Irish Derby winner from a British stable and also the only one to carry Godolphin’s royal blue colours, which means that Jack Hobbs, the runner-up in the Derby at Epsom, would snap two long losing streaks at once with victory in the Curragh Classic on Saturday.
Jack Hobbs is odds-on for Saturday’s race after nine horses were declared on Tuesday, including the fillies Qualify, the 50-1 winner of the Oaks at Epsom, and Pleascach, who is also owned by Godolphin and took the Irish 1,000 Guineas last month. Storm The Stars, third home in the Derby, and Giovanni Canaletto, who finished fourth, are also among the possible runners, along with Highland Reel, the runner-up behind New Bay in the French Derby at Chantilly in May.
Jack Hobbs is top-priced at 8-11 to add a Classic victory to his record at a track that is expected to play to his strengths more than the undulations of Epsom.
“The Curragh will definitely suit him [and] I think he’ll progress, that was only his fourth run,” William Buick, who will take the ride on John Gosden’s colt, said on Tuesday. “It all came thick and fast for him before the Derby, so he’s entitled to improve both physically and mentally. He’s a beautiful horse to ride, you can put him where you want in a race and he goes to sleep. He’s a galloping horse but he has got a kick, Golden Horn just has another gear, and that showed at Epsom.”
Undrafted, the winner of the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on the final day of the Royal meeting at Ascot, is likely to miss the July Cup at Newmarket early next month and run instead in the Sprint Cup at Haydock in September.
Wesley Ward, Undrafted’s trainer, said on Tuesday that his colt, who had been among the ante-post favourites for the feature race at Newmarket’s July meeting, will need time to recover from his big effort at Ascot.
“The July Cup is out,” Ward said. “I just thought Ascot was such a high and he put in a real gut-wrenching effort that I wanted to get him home and give him some time. The race we are really looking at now is the Sprint Cup. Haydock is a flat track and that will suit him.”
Ward is also considering his filly Acapulco, the winner of the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, for the all-aged Nunthorpe Stakes at York in August, in which she would receive a significant weight concession from older horses.
“She’s really something,” Ward said. “She’s always been a big filly, that’s why we bought her, she was so imposing at the sales. It was so disappointing when she had her first run on the dirt but we brought her home, breezed her on the grass, and that was the making of her. I’ve nominated her for the Lowther [Stakes] as well just in case, but she would get 25lb in the Nunthorpe and that is a hell of an allowance.”
Acapulco’s featherweight in the Nunthorpe would also forced Ward to look for a new jockey, however.
“Now as good as Ryan [Moore] is, I wouldn’t want to be giving any of that advantage away so I’ve had a word with John Velazquez,” Ward said. “The race is on a Friday so it won’t conflict with any of his commitments in Saratoga. The weight is such a big issue, of course, she’s still a two-year-old taking on hardened sprinters, but weight stops trains. I’ve never wanted to take on the older horses with a two-year-old before, but this could be the right one.”
