Excel-lent day for O’Brien
The four-year-old’s smooth success proved the highlight of a treble for Aidan O’Brien and provided his son Joseph with the second leg of a double.
Excelebration came through strongly to master pacemaking stable-companion Windsor Palace at the furlong-pole before forging clear to triumph by three and a quarter lengths.
It was no more than was expected of the 2/7 favourite. Aidan O’Brien said: “I’m delighted with that. Obviously he was a very good horse before we got him and Marco Botti did a good job with him.
“He’s very laid-back at home and a lazy worker. He seems a fast horse, with plenty of pace. The plan has always been to come here and head for the Lockinge in Newbury where he’ll clash with Frankel.”
Earlier, O’Brien took the listed Anne Brewster Memorial Loughbrown Stakes -not with uneasy 4/9 favourite Nephrite but with the Seamus Heffernan-ridden Requisition which made every yard of the running to land a tidy on-course gamble from 6/1 to 7/2. He was Heffernan’s first winner of the season.
Winner of a Galway maiden last August, Requisition (officially rated 94) stayed on stoutly in the closing stages to beat Coolnagree (84) by a length and three-quarters with the favourite a similar distance away third.
O’Brien said of the winner: “He progressed well last year and got the mile well when he won his maiden in Galway. He’s a straight-forward horse and I’m delighted with him.”
Nephrite was ridden with confidence by Joseph O’Brien, from well off the pace. Settled at the back of the field, he made headway with two furlongs to race. But, when asked to tackle the leaders approaching the furlong-pole, he found little
When asked about Nephrite, unbeaten in two starts last year (including a Group 3 win), O’Brien commented, “He’s a fast horse and I wouldn’t be sure he’d get a mile. He travelled very well but was found out in the soft ground.”
Later, in ruling Nephrite out of the Qipco 2,000 Guineas, O’Brien added: “Nephrite is all speed. Sometimes you get away with running a sprint-bred horse over seven furlong as a two-year-old. But Jospeh is adamant this colt is a sprinter.”
“She’s a smart and fast filly, a Queen Mary type,” stated O’Brien after 1/3 shot Infanta Branca, beaten on her debut in Cork, had landed the opening Irish Stallion Farms 2-Y-0 Maiden, making all to beat promising debutant Leitir Mor by a half-length and give Henrythenavigator his first win as a sire.
The winning trainer added: “Joseph said she hit the gates and he decided to let bowl along. It’s exciting because she’s Henry’s first winner. She might come back here for the Marble Hill next month.”
The blue and gold Tabor colours were also in the winner’s enclosure after the listed Run Kildare 13th May Alleged Stakes in which 5/4 favourite Chrysanthemum made all under Wayne Lordan to beat Vivacious Vivienne by a length and a half.
Trained by David Wachman, the blinkered Danehill Dancer filly was following-up a Group 3 success over a mile on the opening day of the season.
