Ruby Walsh: William Buick will be ready for whatever Ballydoyle try

Racegoers look on as Latest Generation ridden by jockey William Buick wins the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Stakes as a pilot scheme for the return of crowds to sporting events briefiy took place in Doncaster this week. Picture: David Davies/PA Wire

Champions Weekend will show Irish horse racing for all its glorious worth this weekend and it will be intriguing as well as entertaining.

The intrigue will be the tactics in the Champion Stakes and as to whether Peaceful or Fancy Blue will reign supreme in round three of their private battle in today’s Matron Stakes.

The score is one-all after Peaceful won the argument in the Irish 1000 Guineas and Fancy Blue got the rosette in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly. 

Peaceful and Seamie Heffernan got first run in the Guineas at the Curragh, Pierre-Charles Boudot got it on Fancy Blue at Chantilly and so today Ryan Moore will renew the partnership with Fancy Blue having won the Nassau on her at Goodwood and try and give Donnacha O’Brien his first Irish Group 1 winner, while Seamie Heffernan will go to battle on Peaceful in an attempt to give Aidan the household bragging rights.

Fancy Blue and Ryan Moore winning The Qatar Nassau Stakes (Group 1) for trainer Donnacha O'Brien in July. Picture: Healy Racing.

At 3.10 this afternoon that Matron Stakes is the first of six Group 1 contests run on these shores this weekend, four more will take place at the Curragh on Sunday and Denis Hogan’s Make A Challenge, in the Flying Five, will bid to fly the flag for the small yards on a weekend that the bigger ones are bound to dominate. It would be equally as big a success for his rider Joe Doyle, who rides Make A Challenge with the confidence of a guy who has ridden stars all his life.

Willie Mullins will bid for a second success in the Irish St Leger with Micro Manage. It might even be the first leg of a very strange double involving the Supreme Novices, for the son of Rip Van Wrinkle jumps great and so has a backup plan if things don’t go his way on Sunday.

The weekend is littered with quality, and Pretty Gorgeous could ensure Joseph O’Brien claims a Group 1 in the Moyglare Stud Stakes on Sunday. Battleground looks the best two-year-old Aidan has but the National Stakes looks a real belter with Godolphin’s Master Of The Seas and Jessica Harrington’s Lucky Vega also set to do battle. This is just a thought - and not one I ever imagined writing - but as I sit and write this on Friday morning, Aidan only has the joint favourite in one Group 1 this weekend: Peaceful. And his sons are not his only rivals, but I still cannot see Aidan not bagging one or two, so this surely means there is value somewhere to be found.

Doncaster is on this afternoon too, where Aidan has booked Frankie Dettori for Irish Derby winner Santiago in the St Leger, and Joseph sends Galileo Chrome. But another small yard holds the aces in William Muir’s Pyledriver.

His performance in the Great Voltigeur, and even at Royal Ascot, suggests that if one of the powerhouses trained him, he would be a lot shorter in price today than he is.

There is a clatter of competitive handicaps mixed with a bag of lower group races to make the cards at Leopardstown and the Curragh exciting from start to finish but there is little doubt or debate that the weekend’s highlight is at 4.10 this afternoon.

Ghaiyyath is the highest-rated horse in the world right now, and Godolphin fly him into Dublin on the back of three relentless, front-running Group 1-winning performances. Enable, Magical, Lord North, Stradivarius, Japan and Anthony Van Dyck have been blow away on the Knavesmire, round Esher and across the Newmarket plains, but now he is coming to Ireland and into Aidan’s back yard, where he won’t get a free ride.

Ghaiyyath: Three relentless Group 1 front-running wins so far this season.

He loves to jump, gallop, and dominate. Charlie Appleby, his trainer, has worked out a seamless program which could see this giant son of Dubawi win five Group 1 races from five runs this season, but today will be a different ball game for his rider William Buick.

He was easily allowed to dominate stayers at Newmarket, was given a very soft lead at Sandown and simply used the Flat, non-stamina-sapping track at York to his advantage. Leopardstown presents a different challenge

I think Armory will be used to keep Ghaiyyath honest. He won’t be bumping, shoving or jostling him and Wayne Lordan most definitely won’t lower himself into sledging William Buick, but I think he will jump and let Armory run alongside Ghaiyyath to ensure his rival is made to run at a high tempo without getting a breather.

Armory won’t be good enough to sustain those fractions and he will crack somewhere close to the home turn but then the questions will be answered, will Ghaiyyath be able to sustain the tempo all the way up Leopardstown’s stiff home straight, or will any of the opposition have been able to stay close enough to pounce if he falters?

Magical may be the one sent in closest pursuit, but she too could end up paying the price for racing at a pace slighter faster than is comfortable for her, like she did at Longchamp last October. But will Japan or even Sottsass be close enough if they are allowed to find their rhythm and thus end up sitting well off what could be a ferocious pace.

Last year’s Prix de l’Arc showed Ghaiyyath is beatable and, watching the replay of that, at 10 furlongs Sottsass would have been first of this quartet in that contest.

Either way, William Buick can read form and understands tactics as well as any jockey riding right now, he will be ready for whatever Ballydoyle try, he will have a few plans up his own sleeve, and will even have contemplated how to react if Ghaiyyath breaks slowly from stall three, as he has done on occasion in the past. Ballydoyle do have to do something different here because just trying the same thing that has failed on three occasions for them already this season is pointless. All is fair in love and war, and we all know how Einstein defined insanity.