Irish champion and millionaire POWERSCOURT (GB) (Sadler’s Wells), who is
already responsible for unbeaten Moyglare Stud S. (Ire-G1) heroine Termagant,
recorded his first winner in North America when his juvenile son Mighty Monarch
captured Thursday’s 3RD race at Woodbine. With Emile Ramsammy aboard, the Laurie
Silvera trainee rolled from off the pace to score by two lengths. Mighty Monarch
negotiated six furlongs in 1:11 2/5 on the Polytrack.
Powerscourt flashed talent during his two-year-old campaign for Aidan
O’Brien, rounding out the 2002 season with a runner-up effort in the Racing Post
Trophy (Eng-G1). The bay earned his first stakes victory the following year,
with a game score in the Great Voltigeur S. (Eng-G2), and ranked as an Irish
co-highweight three-year-old colt, but only reached his peak as an older horse.
In his four-year-old debut, Powerscourt romped by six lengths in a
tour-de-force, front-running performance in the 2004 Tattersalls Gold Cup
(Ire-G1). That summer, he appeared to have added another top-level success to
his resume in the Arlington Million S. (G1), where he rallied from far back to
cross the wire 1 1/2 lengths in front. His victory was fleeting, however, for he
was judged to have caused interference in the stretch, was disqualified and
placed fourth.
Powerscourt gained his revenge in the 2005 Arlington Million, impressively
defeating reigning champion turf horse Kitten’s Joy by three lengths in what
turned out to be his final start. Had he not been disqualified the year before,
Powerscourt would have joined John Henry as the only two-time winners of the
Arlington Million. Even so, Powerscourt still ranks as the only horse to have
passed the post in front in two consecutive runnings of Arlington’s signature
event.
Over the course of his career, Powerscourt garnered seven stakes placings,
six at the Grade/Group 1 level, including such major contests as the Breeders’
Cup Turf (G1), Irish Champion S. (Ire-G1), Irish St. Leger (Ire-G1) and Prince
of Wales’s S. (Eng-G1). He retired with $1,912,272 in earnings from a record of
21-5-6-3.
Out of English Group 3 heroine Rainbow Lake (Rainbow Quest), Powerscourt is a
half-brother to multiple English stakes winner Kind (Danehill).
The nine-year-old stands for $7,500, live foal, at Ashford Stud near
Versailles, Kentucky.