Rain, reschedule and (closer to the) record
August 24th 2008 03:07
They finally ran the rescheduled York Feature races at different venues on Saturday after the abandonment of the prestigious four-day York Ebor meeting. With the total rainfall of August well over four times the average the racing surface at York was deemed unfit for racing.
(photo: aolnews)
At Newmarket we were privy to the clash of the 4 year old champion from Ballydoyle, Duke Of Marmalade, taking on the (Epsom Derby winning) 3 year old champion New Approach in the Group One 10 furlong Juddmonte International. But this was to be no contest as Aidan O’Brien secured his 18th Group One victory for this season. Admittedly New Approach was returning from injury - and raced as much not ever really settling in the running and pulling hard.
Duke of Marmalade settled second behind Ballydoyle’s other entrant Red Rock Canyon who made the running until 3 furlongs from home when Duke Of Marmalade ‘took the baton’ and ran the final leg to the line. Phoenix Tower finished second (with a chequered run in patches) ahead of New Approach who was one-paced to the line after using too much energy fighting Kevin Manning for rein in the early stages.
Some quotes after the race:
"He is so special that you wonder if he is flesh and blood. If horses were made out of concrete and stone he would be made out of something harder.
He is a great horse with speed, and is getting pacier if you look at the way he travels through his races.
He had a very messy week as he came to England, spent a couple of hours here and then flew back.
He travelled from 5am Tuesday morning and didn't get back to Ballydoyle until about 3.30pm. There was a lot of travelling there and we were afraid to look for a couple of days to see how much weight he had lost.
I was nervous as I wasn't sure what would happen, but it is a credit to those people who made it happen today and it just shows what can happen when people get together.
He is just one of those very special horses, and you can see that yourself.
He will never win too far, which is probably to his advantage.
If all is well with him the plan will be to go Leopardstown with him in two weeks for the Irish Champion Stakes (September 6)." - Aidan O’Brien
"I had to wait an extra couple of days for it but it turned out to be a great race.
He is so solid, so genuine and always turns up the same.
His work is good, his temperament is good and when he turns up at the races you can guarantee he is going to put up a performance like that.
I got a lovely run up the inside and got there sooner than I wanted. But I knew that when I asked for maximum effort that he would pull it out for me up the hill." - Johnny Murtagh
At Goodwood on a track rated good to soft the odds-on favourite (Melbourne Cup aspirant) Patkai failed dismally in the Great Voltigeur Stakes five horse field to finish a disappointing and well-beaten 4th. Behind him was an even more disappointing Godolphin extravagance ($US11.7 million purchase) in Meydan City. The winner was the grey colt Centennial who returned to his winning Group 3 Classic Trial (at Sandown) form with an all-the-way victory. After winning at Sandown first up he failed (albeit in quality events) when 4th behind Tartan Bearer and Frozen Fire (beaten a head) in the Dante Stakes at York; then subsequently was a disappointing 8th in the Irish Derby behind Frozen Fire in a quality field with Casual Conquest, Tartan Bearer and Allesandro Volta finishing ahead of him. But in the Great Voltigeur he was able to once again claim the lead and make his rivals chase. Started at the ridiculous odds of 12/1 (second outsider of field) when you consider that this was a much easier assignment than previous tasks.
Centennial was (surprisingly) left out of the St Leger but he may be supplemented to the field. The result of the Great Voltigeur has led to a dramatic change in betting for the St Leger with Coral introducing Centennial into the betting at 7/1 with the favourite now being Conduit at 4/1. Patkai has been removed from their market - although he is still prominent with many other bookmakers.
Juddmonte International Stakes result:
1 Duke Of Marmalade (J Murtagh) 4-6 fav
2 Phoenix Tower (T E Durcan) 12-1
3 New Approach (K J Manning) 2-1
4 Pipedreamer (S Sanders) 14-1
9 ran
Great Voltigeur Stakes result:
1 Centennial (J Fortune) 12-1
2 Top Lock (Martin Dwyer) 9-2
3 Scintillo (R Hughes) 16-1
4 Patkai (R Winston) 8-11 fav
5 ran
Relive some of the highlights of Royal Ascot 2008 including those victories that put Aidan O’Brien on path to history...and much,much more...
washout for York racing carnival
(photo: aolnews)
At Newmarket we were privy to the clash of the 4 year old champion from Ballydoyle, Duke Of Marmalade, taking on the (Epsom Derby winning) 3 year old champion New Approach in the Group One 10 furlong Juddmonte International. But this was to be no contest as Aidan O’Brien secured his 18th Group One victory for this season. Admittedly New Approach was returning from injury - and raced as much not ever really settling in the running and pulling hard.
Duke of Marmalade settled second behind Ballydoyle’s other entrant Red Rock Canyon who made the running until 3 furlongs from home when Duke Of Marmalade ‘took the baton’ and ran the final leg to the line. Phoenix Tower finished second (with a chequered run in patches) ahead of New Approach who was one-paced to the line after using too much energy fighting Kevin Manning for rein in the early stages.
Some quotes after the race:
"He is so special that you wonder if he is flesh and blood. If horses were made out of concrete and stone he would be made out of something harder.
He had a very messy week as he came to England, spent a couple of hours here and then flew back.
He travelled from 5am Tuesday morning and didn't get back to Ballydoyle until about 3.30pm. There was a lot of travelling there and we were afraid to look for a couple of days to see how much weight he had lost.
I was nervous as I wasn't sure what would happen, but it is a credit to those people who made it happen today and it just shows what can happen when people get together.
He is just one of those very special horses, and you can see that yourself.
He will never win too far, which is probably to his advantage.
If all is well with him the plan will be to go Leopardstown with him in two weeks for the Irish Champion Stakes (September 6)." - Aidan O’Brien
"I had to wait an extra couple of days for it but it turned out to be a great race.
He is so solid, so genuine and always turns up the same.
His work is good, his temperament is good and when he turns up at the races you can guarantee he is going to put up a performance like that.
I got a lovely run up the inside and got there sooner than I wanted. But I knew that when I asked for maximum effort that he would pull it out for me up the hill." - Johnny Murtagh
At Goodwood on a track rated good to soft the odds-on favourite (Melbourne Cup aspirant) Patkai failed dismally in the Great Voltigeur Stakes five horse field to finish a disappointing and well-beaten 4th. Behind him was an even more disappointing Godolphin extravagance ($US11.7 million purchase) in Meydan City. The winner was the grey colt Centennial who returned to his winning Group 3 Classic Trial (at Sandown) form with an all-the-way victory. After winning at Sandown first up he failed (albeit in quality events) when 4th behind Tartan Bearer and Frozen Fire (beaten a head) in the Dante Stakes at York; then subsequently was a disappointing 8th in the Irish Derby behind Frozen Fire in a quality field with Casual Conquest, Tartan Bearer and Allesandro Volta finishing ahead of him. But in the Great Voltigeur he was able to once again claim the lead and make his rivals chase. Started at the ridiculous odds of 12/1 (second outsider of field) when you consider that this was a much easier assignment than previous tasks.
Centennial was (surprisingly) left out of the St Leger but he may be supplemented to the field. The result of the Great Voltigeur has led to a dramatic change in betting for the St Leger with Coral introducing Centennial into the betting at 7/1 with the favourite now being Conduit at 4/1. Patkai has been removed from their market - although he is still prominent with many other bookmakers.
Juddmonte International Stakes result:
1 Duke Of Marmalade (J Murtagh) 4-6 fav
2 Phoenix Tower (T E Durcan) 12-1
3 New Approach (K J Manning) 2-1
4 Pipedreamer (S Sanders) 14-1
9 ran
Great Voltigeur Stakes result:
1 Centennial (J Fortune) 12-1
2 Top Lock (Martin Dwyer) 9-2
3 Scintillo (R Hughes) 16-1
4 Patkai (R Winston) 8-11 fav
5 ran
Relive some of the highlights of Royal Ascot 2008 including those victories that put Aidan O’Brien on path to history...and much,much more...
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