Al Kazeem’s connections keeping close eye on weather ahead
of Irish Champion
With the dark clouds threatening to burst over
Dublin, all-important ground conditions remain an unknown
ahead of Saturday’s Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. With significant rain an almost inevitability, John Deer’s Al Kazeem is firmly in the mix
for a race he looked set to swerve as late as midweek, while connections of Declaration of War
and The Fugue are praying it arrives in moderation.
Al Kazeem has a 2 3/4-length deficit to make up on Declaration of War from
the Juddmonte International at a sun-baked York 17 days ago, but trainer Roger Charlton has always
maintained that easier ground will mean a better performer.
“Al Kazeem left Beckhampton at 8 a.m. this morning to start his long journey to Ireland in
the hope that there will be some rain at Leopardstown before racing tomorrow evening,”
Charlton
said Friday. “The weather forecast seems to change by the hour, and there is a wide
range of opinions as to how much they will get. The gun is loaded, so fingers crossed yet
again.”
While the surface was fast when the five-year-old son of Dubawi took the May
26 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The
Curragh, the June 19 Prince of Wales’s at Royal Ascot and July 6 Eclipse at
Sandown, his York effort may have been one too many on unsuitably quick ground, and he
shortened stride late to allow Irish Derby hero and King George VI and Queen
Elizabeth runner-up Trading Leather back past and into second.
Aidan O’Brien has won a record seven renewals of this race, and Declaration of War holds strong
credentials if the weather is not as dramatic as forecast, but on no worse than yielding Joseph
Allen’s homebred will still be a force to be reckoned with. The War Front colt has form on soft ground at a
lower level, but his best efforts have come on a sound surface.
Also from Ballydoyle is the
intriguing Kingsbarns, who brings an unbeaten record into play despite not being seen since
winning the Racing Post Trophy on the soft at Doncaster in late October. Long held in high regard, he
will be helped by wet conditions and remains totally unexposed and an unknown quantity.
Lord Lloyd-Webber’s The Fugue had her ideal fast ground when registering an authoritative success in the 12-furlong
Yorkshire Oaks at the Ebor meeting 16 days ago and trainer John Gosden is facing a nervous time in the
build-up.
“She’s very well, but obviously we are watching very carefully what happens with the weather,” he told PA
Sport. “Obviously, we would be very concerned if it rains but things are changing all the time.”
Leopardstown’s
Racing and Operations Manager Nessa Joyce gave the latest update Friday afternoon.
“We had an isolated
shower overnight, which was a bit of a surprise and gave us four millimeters of rain,” she explained. “We’re calling
the ground good-to-firm all round at the moment and we’ll just have to see what happens later in the day.
“It’s the
great unknown. I think the heaviest of the rain is going to be in the middle of the night and the latest forecast
suggests we could get anything between 10 and 20 millimeters. The good thing is it sounds like by the
morning we’ll hopefully have had the worst of the rain, so we should have a good idea where we stand.
“The worst-case
scenario is that it rains throughout the day, but it is very hard to predict. Hopefully it is going to be more showery
than persistent rain. There is a crazy outside chance we won’t get any rain at all, so we’re just going to have to
monitor things very closely.”
Prior to the Irish Champions, a field of 12 distaffers will go in the Group 1
Matron at Leopardstown. With no stand-out performer in the line-up, the way is clear for an improver to step
forward, and one who fits that bill is Kieran Leavy, Lorcan Cribbin and Amanda McCreery’s supplemented triple
Pattern-race scorer Fiesolana.
Having already annexed this track’s Ballyogan going six
furlongs on June 13, the four-year-old showed that extra distance held no fears when adding the Brownstown and Fairy Bridge to her tally at Fairyhouse
on July 3 and Tipperary on August 22, respectively. On the latter occasion, she
gave the high-class Sea Siren five pounds and a decisive 1 1/4-length beating over just 120 yards shy of
Saturday’s one-mile trip despite being
reportedly short of peak fitness.
“She’s in great form — she came out of her race at Tipperary very well,” trainer
Willie McCreery said. “We’re clutching at straws a little bit, but she deserves to be there having won three Group 3s this
year.
“Her wins this year have all been on watered ground, but I don’t know if she needs a bit of cut in the
ground. She has a very high cruising speed and she’s able to quicken off it and saves a little bit for herself when
she hits the front as well. All she has done is progress and she’s answered everything we’ve asked. She has a good draw,
is very straightforward in her races and the mile shouldn’t be a problem.”
If Ibrahim Araci’s Chigun can revisit the form of her impressive win in The Curragh’s Ridgewood Pearl over this trip
on May 25, she could play a leading role, but she has to rebound from two unplaced efforts on contrasting ground
conditions in the June 19 Duke of Cambridge at Royal Ascot and July 28 Prix Rothschild at Deauville.
“The ground is probably irrelevant for her, as long as it’s not extreme either way,” the owner’s Racing Manager
Rob Speers told PA Sport. “She wouldn’t want it very quick or too heavy.
“I think with Elusive Kate not running,
it’s a very open race. There are probably half a dozen fillies in there with a genuine chance and hopefully we’re
one of them.”
Visiting from France is Guy Pariente’s Kenhope, who proved that her second
in the Coronation at Royal Ascot on June 21 was no fluke when third in the Rothschild. Her trainer
Henri-Alex Pantall took this in 1997 with Clerio when it was a Group 3 staged at The Curragh.
“She has recovered very well from her last race at Deauville and she
traveled well to Ireland and arrived on Thursday morning,” assistant trainer Ludovec Gadben
told PA Sport. “Everything is going in a good way for the filly.
It was good news for us that Elusive Kate does not run.
“She is a tough filly and has been running well all year at
a high level, so we think she should run very well. Any rain would be good news for her. She goes on all ground,
but she is better if it is somewhere between good and heavy. She has run well on all types of racecourses, so the
track won’t be a problem for her.”
The group action will get underway at Leopardstown on Saturday when Moyglare
Stud Farm’s Free Eagle takes the next step up the ladder in a strong-looking renewal of the Group 3 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Trial.
So impressive over this track and one-mile trip in his debut when accounting for impressive subsequent
winner Orchestra by 5 1/2 lengths, the Dermot Weld trainee will be tested by a select
bunch of smart juveniles including Jim Bolger’s Wexford Town and Ballydoyle’s
Kingfisher, who were nearly seven and eight lengths behind him when third and fourth, respectively, on
debut.
The latter has since scored by nine lengths in a Killarney maiden going 100 yards farther 10 days ago, but it
is significant that Joseph O’Brien prefers his stablemate Australia. A highly-prized
son of Ouija Board, who has yet to produce anything approaching her level, Australia beat Free
Eagle’s barnmate and subsequent Moyglare Stud Stakes fourth Carla Bianca by just
three parts of a
length going seven furlongs at The Curragh on July 20, and Weld will have an insight into the merit of that
performance.
For all the above quartet’s abundant promise, they all have to get past the proven Exogenesis, who is penalized as a result of his success in the Tyros
going seven furlongs here on July 25. Sean Jones’
gelding was no match for War Command when a latest third in the August 24 Futurity at The Curragh, but has valuable experience to draw upon against his lightly-raced opponents.
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