Business as usual for Aidan O'Brien at the Curragh

Sugar Island and Wayne Lordan win for trainer Aidan O'Brien. Pic: Healy Racing

It was business as usual at the Curragh for Aidan O’Brien as he saddled a 44-1 double at Tuesday’s meeting.

The feature was the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes, a race the trainer won with Content in 2023 and with Whirl in 2024, and he saddled three runners this time.

Sugar Island was initially put in favourite but was very weak in the market as money flooded in for stablemate Cameo and maiden Thundering On. 

However, Wayne Lordan was proactive aboard Sugar Island, taking up the early running and ensuring the fractions were sensible.

Despite the presence of potential dangers, Lordan kept something up his sleeve for the final two furlongs and his mount quickened up well to beat Thundering On with plenty to spare.

The second deserves credit as she was the only filly to make gains from off the pace, and surely a maiden is a formality for her when connections next choose to take aim at one.

“She had the form in the race, she doesn’t mind that ease in the ground, and she’s a filly we feel is going to get much further next year,” said Lordan. “She was straightforward enough that I could jump and let her bowl along, and whatever was going to get to me, it was going to be tough for them.” 

The first leg of Lordan and O’Brien’s brace came in the opener, the Friarstown Stud Irish EBF Maiden, in which Trojan Warrior grabbed what looked for much of the final two furlongs an unlikely victory.

Go Just Do It trade short when going a couple clear inside the final furlong but, with a combination of him coming back and Trojan Warrior quickening up, the picture changed dramatically in the closing stages as Lordan's mount swooped. The winner, a son of Ingabelle winner Monday, went on to score by a length and a half.

Martin and Wayne Hassett teamed up to take the 1xbet.ie Safer Gambling Handicap with Dmaniac. Always close to the pace on the stands’ side, he asserted from two out and ran on well to beat Mercurial.

In the Bill Hanlon Memorial Fillies' Maiden Likewhatyousee, trained by Cormac Farrell and ridden by Rory Cleary, got up close home to foil a gamble on Eroico. 

Prominent throughout, the latter looked to have her rivals in trouble from two out but the 67-rated winner, who gives the impression she will improve significantly with time, ran her down close home to secure a three-quarters-of-a-length victory.

Sirius, who gave owner-rider David Dunsdon the biggest day of his riding career when taking the Connacht Hotel QR Race at the 2024 Galway festival, gave her owner another day to remember by earning him a winning first ride at the Curragh in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Amateur Riders’ Derby.

Although it certainly wasn’t as dramatic as when she came from last to first in the Galway race, the six-year-old made impressively smooth progress to lead more than a furlong out and then stretched away to win readily.

The occasion wasn’t lost on Dunsdon, who told RacingTV: “I walked in this morning and the guys said, ‘you’re sitting there,’ and I saw (the names of) Ryan Moore, William Buick, and Frankie Dettori, and I was like, ‘you’re in the promised land’. I messaged my cousin saying, ‘I’ve got a good seat today,’ and he said, ‘you’ve better try to ride like them’ and I was, like, ‘no chance!’” 

Syzygy, trained by Danny Mcloughlin, who is making quite a name for himself, stepped up in trip for the Final Furlong Podcast With 1xbet.ie Handicap and it proved well within compass as she followed up her two recent wins over a mile.

With Ben Coen, who rode her to the first of those wins, back on board, the 10-3 chance forged ahead close home to beat favourite Pillar Of Hope by half a length, with Chica Guerrera, who had looked the winner racing to the final furlong, running out of puff close home and having to settle for third place.

There was an upset in the finale, the one-mile handicap, but it provided yet another important winner for Dylan Browne McMonagle as he marches towards a maiden jockeys’ championship. 

Riding Perry Mason for Co Cork trainer Maurice Ahern, for whom it was a first winner under licence, he hit the front close home aboard the 25-1 chance to deny Super Exceed and Zabeir.