A review of the pick of the action from Leopardstown on Sunday including some recognised Classic trials.<\/p>\n
Christmas comes around quickly<\/p>\n
The Aidan O’Brien-trained Christmas Day<\/a>, ridden by Wayne Lordan and sent off an 11\/1 chance on seasonal debut, came home strongest of all to cause a bit of a surprise in the P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes.<\/p>\n The son of Camelot proved to be a progressive colt at two, winning a Group 3 on his final start in October, and showed a good attitude late on to reel in and overhaul front-running stablemate Endorsement (17\/2) to score by half a length. There was another half-length back to A Boy Named Susie (11\/2) in third, with O’Brien’s Italy fourth.<\/p>\n The disappointment of the race was Ballydoyle’s even-money favourite Pierre Bonnard<\/a> who looked laboured in the home straight and finished out of the frame in the hands of Ryan Moore. He was pushed out to 6\/1 (from 7\/2 favourite) for the Betfred Derby, with the winner Christmas Day slashed to 16\/1 from 40s for the Epsom Classic.<\/p>\n O’Brien reacted on Racing TV, saying: “We were very happy, Wayne was happy, his horse gave him a lovely ride, Ronan (Whelan, on Endorsement) the same. Chris (Hayes, aboard Italy) was happy with his fella, said he was a good traveller. Going a mile and a quarter is going to be no problem for him. <\/p>\n “It was a little bit of a stop-start race. The winner is a smart horse, he won a Group race around here and we were going to go for a race in France but he got a temperature and we didn’t get to go. Wayne said he will stay further but said he has pace and that he quickened up.<\/p>\n “Ryan said he would have preferred to be handier in a little bit more of a rhythm. He ended up where he ended up. But he was very happy with the horse, he said he had two blows, we thought that that would happen.<\/p>\n “I think Ryan’s horse (Pierre Bonnard) will leave the run well behind him. He’s a horse who is going to get a mile and a half well. We’re still happy we got the run into him. He definitely will come back (to Leopardstown for the Derby Trial Stakes), the plan was to come back here. I was a little bit worried in the week thinking should we go, but then he’d end up going to the Derby with just the one run. <\/p>\n “We just thought that if he was going to the Derby, he’d need the two runs – win, lose or draw. So he’s had his first run now. We’ll see him the next day and be able to assess him properly. <\/p>\n “I was just worried coming here that all the horses were going to need it very badly. They’re all having a blow or two, probably more than usual.”<\/p>\n Straight and True by the stands’ rail<\/p>\n True Love<\/a> (3\/1 joint-favourite) was clipped to 8\/1 from 12s for the QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket after winning the Ballylinch Stud Priory Belle Stakes on seasonal debut.<\/p>\n Aidan O’Brien’s No Nay Never filly, winner of the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer, was last seen finishing down the field in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar but made a fine start to her three-year-old campaign.<\/p>\n The runners were spread across the track soon after turning for home and Ryan Moore brought the winner with a sustained run close to the nearside rail to ultimately win by a length and a quarter from 28\/1 outsider Magny Cours. Pivotal Attack (10\/1) was third, with the other joint-favourite Black Caviar Gold a disappointing ninth.<\/p>\n O’Brien said on Racing TV: “She’s a big pacy mare, whether she’d get the mile or not it’s hard to know but Ryan said she travelled very easily, went through the race very easily, so he was very happy. The mile is what you can’t be sure about.<\/p>\n “Ryan rode her positively, wanting to find out. He gave her a beautiful ride, she’s a big, high-cruiser, and she’s a classy filly. Definitely something to look forward to.<\/p>\n “She’s definitely a possible for it – obviously she can go to France if she doesn’t go to Newmarket.”<\/p>\n There was a third winner on the day for O’Brien as Moore guided the 3\/1 chance Cape Cod<\/a> to a half-length victory in the concluding Tony Harmon Services Handicap.<\/p>\n Stacks of potential<\/p>\n Thesecretadversary<\/a> won the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud Red Rocks Stakes over the extended seven furlongs.<\/p>\n Fozzy Stack\u2019s chestnut, a son of St Mark\u2019s Basilica having his first start of the season having one of five starts last year and ended his campaign with a Grade 1 fifth at Woodbine in Canada, overcame a 211-day layoff with a fine performance.<\/p>\n Jockey Seamie Heffernan brought the three-year-old with a well-timed run towards the centre of the track to claim Power Blue around a furlong from home, and the white-faced winner quickened nicely to score by two and a half lengths.<\/p>\n The Group 1-winning Power Blue stuck to his task in second, with Redemption Road third at 25\/1, while there was drama on the turn for home as Warsaw appeared to break down injured and Ronan Whelan was unseated from Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s horse.<\/p>\n Paddy Power and Sky Bet make Thesecretadversary a 25\/1 shot (from 66\/1) for the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.<\/p>\n More from Sporting LifeSafer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A review of the pick of the action from Leopardstown on Sunday including some recognised Classic trials. Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-395581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}