O'Brien sweeps trio of juvenile stakes at Newmarket

Aidan O’Brien had an afternoon to remember Saturday at Newmarket in England – but then he has had plenty of those during his remarkable career.

His stable in Ireland clearly having broken the hold of a midsummer virus, O’Brien won all three Group races for 2-year-olds on the Newmarket card, starting by running one-two-three in the Group 2 Royal Lodge, where Mohawk got the money, and going on to capture the Group 1 Cheveley Park with Fairyland and the Group 1 Middle Park with Ten Sovereigns.

With top stable rider Ryan Moore in New York to ride Mendelssohn in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, O’Brien’s son Donnacha was aboard all three winners Saturday.

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The one-mile Royal Lodge, a Group 2, was a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In race offering automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Juvenile Turf and travel expenses to Churchill Downs, but O’Brien suggested Mohawk wouldn’t start again this season. Perhaps Sydney Opera House, who set the pace and held second, 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner, could be a candidate for Churchill Downs, as could Cape of Good Hope, the shortest price among the O’Brien-trained trio but last of three home, coming third 1 3/4 lengths behind Sydney Opera House. Mohawk, by Galileo and out of Empowering, by Encosta de Lago, won for the second time in five starts and if he winters well will show up in a Classic trial next spring.

Ten Sovereigns was the only O’Brien winning favorite, beating Jash by a half-length in the Middle Park as an odds-on favorite, the top two more than three lengths clear of third-place Rumble Inthejungle. Ten Sovereigns, whose owner, Coolmore, stands his first-crop sire, No Nay Never, got a patient ride from Donnacha O’Brien while stalking the pace in the center of the course. O’Brien pulled the trigger on his physically imposing mount with a little less than a quarter-mile to run in the six-furlong Middle Park, and Ten Sovereigns, staying balanced going downhill into the last-furlong Newmarket dip, then staying strong through the uphill final portions, remained unbeaten after three starts. Jash showed promise of his own, quickening with the winner when Ten Sovereigns made his move and making the favorite work a bit to win. Both horses probably made their final start at age 2, and Ten Sovereigns, who is out of Seeking Solace, by Exceed and Excel, might struggle to get a mile next season.

Fairyland, who O’Brien said was among the horses hardest hit by the virus, didn’t do anything flashy in the Cheveley Park but ran on steadily from midpack to beat The Mackem Bullet by a neck. So Perfect, another O’Brien-trained filly, finished a half-length farther back in third. Fairyland, by Kodiac and out of the Pivotal mare Queenofthefairies, won for the fourth time in five starts. She has scope and speed,but the latter characteristic might dominate the former, and Fairyland isn’t yet certain to stay a mile.

Favored Pretty Pollyanna pulled very hard in the early and middle stages and proved no factor late.

Aidan O’Brien was a factor – early, late, and everything in between.