Solskjaer's Royal success
Ex-invalid Solskjaer put up a brave performance to narrowly take the Royal Whip Stakes from the well-backed favourite Tropical Lady at the Curragh today.
Aidan O’Brien’s four-year-old made all the running under Jamie Spencer and held on gamely when pressed in the closing stages after facing a strong headwind up the straight.
However, Solskjaer (9-4) may have been fortunate to score as the runner-up, attempting to win her sixth race on the bounce, was stuck on the rails all the way up the straight in the Group Two contest.
The 11-8 chance only found racing room well inside the last of the 10 furlongs, but it was all too late and she failed by a head to get up.
Media Puzzle, having his first race since winning the 2002 Melbourne Cup, showed up well in the straight and finished fifth of the six runners, beaten just over two lengths by the winner.
Solskjaer, carrying the colours of the trainer’s wife Ann Marie, was highly rated by O’Brien as a youngster but suffered two serious injuries.
“He had an injury at two which he should never have come back from,” O’Brien said.
“We thought he was nearly our best two-year-old and that’s why we called him Solskjaer, but he tore all his ligaments off his hock and we thought he’d never race again. He came back in the Guineas and then did the same thing again.
“When you have two horrific injuries like that, 99 per cent of horses wouldn’t come back.
“But he’s on the way back now and with every race he’s getting better. He’ll have a break now and then we’ll train him for a big one. We might train him for the Irish Champion.”
O’Brien and Spencer were also on the mark in the opening Waterford Crystal EBF Maiden when Chinese Dragon landed odds of 9-10.
But the winner, well beaten on his debut at Tipperary last month, was made to pull out all the stops by the slow-starting Lightwood Lady and only held the filly at bay by a length.
“He’s a lovely horse but he was just too babyish first time and we’ll step him up to a conditions or a Listed race now,” said O’Brien.
