Abbey upstaged by his 66/1 stable companion

Odds-on favourite St. Nicholas Abbey was upstaged by 66/1 stable-companion Windsor Palace in a bizarre renewal of the Group 3 High Chaparral Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh yesterday.

Just two weeks after Nephrite’s odds-on defeat behind stable-companion Requisition, 2/5 favourite and 124-rated St. Nicholas Abbey, winner of the Breeders Cup Turf last November and narrowly beaten by Cirrus Des Aigles in the Dubai Sheema Classic, stayed on stoutly inside the final furlong to get within a length of the 99-rated winner, enterprisingly ridden by Colm O’Donoghue to register his first success since landing a Dundalk maiden in October 2007.

Predictably, Robin Hood (Seamus Heffernan) set a strong pace, tracked by the eventual winner as the Ballydoyle pair established a clear advantage over the Joseph O’Brien-ridden favourite, which was tracked throughout by market-rival Sharestan (Johnny Murtagh).