Ireland: Breeders' Cup possibles show off winning forms
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The winners of all three Breeders’ Cup Challenge races on Sunday at The Curragh in Ireland could actually have the Breeders’ Cup marked on their calendar this fall. And two of them, Sun Goddess and Folsom Blues, would be favored if the Breeders’ Cup were held next weekend.
Sun Goddess continued along her star trajectory, capturing the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes by a whopping 6 1/2 lengths. Sun Goddess had questions to answer regarding a distance as far as seven furlongs and ground as soft as what she encountered Sunday, but the filly had strong answers to both. Always traveling like a winner under Ryan Moore, Sun Goddess not only saw out her first trip beyond six furlongs, she extended her lead through the final furlong while not being asked for anything close to her best.
The odds-on favorite for trainer Aidan O’Brien, Sun Goddess, a Sioux Nation filly, now has won five of seven starts. She could wheel back in two weeks to race in the Group 1 Cheveley Park at Newmarket or await the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, a two-turn mile that O’Brien has no doubt the filly will handle. Sun Goddess also is the early favorite for the 1000 Guineas next May.
The colt Folsom Blues came into the Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes following a second-place finish in the Phoenix Stakes behind – Sun Goddess. Stretched out from six furlongs to seven, Folsom Blues crushed seven Sunday rivals, easily taking command of the National inside the final quarter-mile and beating his Joseph O’Brien-trained stablemate Monogram, the favorite, by six lengths. Folsom Blues, by Blue Point, could run in the Group 1 Dewhurst before trying the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, his trainer reported.
A third O’Brien, Donnacha, trains Commanche Brave, a very impressive winner of the Group 1 Flying Five under Billy Loughnane. Commanche Brave had been campaigned more as a seven-furlong-to-one-mile type earlier in his career before cutting back to six-furlong sprints this season.
He scored a breakthrough win in the Group 1 July Cup, and from what Loughnane told O’Brien after the race, the five-furlong Flying Five seemed to suit the horse even better than three-quarters of a mile. Loughnane had help from a supercharged mount, but perfectly timed a strong run from the rear third of the field, finding tight gaps near the stands-side rail as Commanche Brave burst between horses and on to a 1 1/4-length victory over American Affair.
O’Brien said connections had contemplated a run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but after Commanche Brave shortened up with aplomb on Sunday, the BC Turf Sprint now stands as his target at Keeneland.
American racing’s not the major goal for Oaks winner Thundering On, who rebounded from a disinterested fourth in the Pretty Polly Stakes this summer to notch an impressive win in the Group 2 Blandford. Thundering On, Moore up for Joseph O’Brien, came with a long, sustained run from the back of the filed for a going-away 1 1/2-length score. Thundering On, by Frankel, has as her target the Prix de l’Arc Triomphe, a race that holds special appeal – beyond its global stature -- with the massive weight break sophomore fillies get from older horses.
And, finally, Moore really had to bear down on overwhelming favorite Scandinavia, but the pair pulled away in deep stretch to win the Group 1 Irish St. Leger by two lengths over Scandinavia’s Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate Queenstown. Four-year-old Scandinavia, by Justify, has an eight-race winning streak – including five Group 1s -- and is the best staying horse in Europe.
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