Shakespeare success would bode well for Aidan O’Brien
BIG TALENT: Alpha and Ryan Moore win for trainer Aidan O'Brien at the Curragh in July. Pic: Healy Racing
The recent struggles of the Aidan O’Brien team means punters face a dilemma on Thursday’s Leopardstown card.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Naas card, where he saddled the winner of the opening race, only three of the last 48 Ballydoyle runners have won, a strike rate of just 6%, way below the level one would expect of such a relentlessly formidable operation.
O’Brien’s travails will surely not last long — they never do — and it’ll be no great surprise if he leaves Leopardstown on Thursday night having won the two main races on the card as well as the opening contest.
Alpha looks the most likely Ballydoyle victor and it’ll be a huge surprise if the daughter of Sea The Stars and Alpha Centauri fails to build on her emphatic maiden win at the Curragh on Irish Derby day with victory in the Group 3 Saudi Cup Silver Flash Stakes.
Whether punters will really want to back Alpha at prohibitive odds given the current stable form is open to debate, but she is bred to be top-class and the evidence to date suggests she may well go right to the top. On that basis, she’s impossible to oppose here.
It’s a bit easier to pick holes in her stablemate Aix La Chapelle in the Group 3 Japan Racing Association Tyros Stakes.
The Justify colt looked pretty good when making a winning debut in a Curragh maiden, a win that secured his ticket for Royal Ascot. However, he was taken out of the Chesham Stakes just before the off having reared up in the stalls.
For that reason, how he behaves at the start will be every bit as important as how he finishes the race. But, if he puts his best hoof forward and builds on his Curragh run, his class should see him home in front.
Confidence in both Alpha and Aix La Chapelle will be heightened if Shakespeare makes a winning debut in the first race on the card, the Frank Conroy Irish EBF Maiden.
The Dubawi colt shaped well when third on debut behind stablemates Giant Sequoia and Oklahoma at the Curragh last month and should be better for the experience. If that proves the case, he ought to deliver.
A field of just four will face the judge for the Dubai Racing Carnival Rated Race but it’s still an intriguing contest, one that can go the way of the Lord Aus.
A good third of 12 on handicap debut at Down Royal in May, the Johnny Murtagh-trained Australia gelding got off the mark in impressive fashion at Limerick last month and may be able to back up that success.
The jumps brigade are back at Wexford on Thursday and Del Boys Diva could be worth waiting for in the penultimate race, the second division of the Park Run At Wexford Saturday Mornings Handicap Hurdle.
The Shane Crawley-trained six-year-old mare got off the mark at Roscommon earlier this month and a 9lb hike for that success may not be enough to stop her going in again.
Darren Norris
4.58 Shakespeare
5.33 Churchill Bond
6.08 Alpha
6.43 Aix La Chapelle
7.18 Dark Viper
7.53 Lord Aus (Nap)
8.28 Tatum
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