Ryan Moore
The staying division is crying out for a rival to throw it down to the brilliant Kyprios and tomorrow’s Irish St Leger (4.45) will go a long to deciding whether or not Giavellotto can fill that breach.
Having overcome a career-threatening injury which scuppered his efforts last season – including when second in this Group One contest on his return 12 months ago – Kyprios has bounced back to his best this term with Aidan O’Brien’s six-year-old making it four from four after a smooth success in the Goodwood Cup at the end of July.
Ryan Moore’s mount should be cherry ripe to land another edition of this €600,000 contest but the 2022 victor should be given plenty to think about by dual Yorkshire Cup hero Giavellotto, if ratings are anything to go by anyway.
A trip to the Curragh has long been the target for Marco Botti’s five-year-old, rated just 1lb inferior to Kyprios, and the son of Mastercraftsman comes here in the form of his life having landed the Group Two Princess Of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket in mid-July.
Oisín Murphy’s mount commands respect, as does the Willie Mullins-trained Vauban after bouncing back to something like his best to land the Lonsdale Cup at York last month, but a changing of the guard is not expected just yet and Kyprios can further cement his greatness to make it 13 wins from 17 starts.
That bookends a scintillating sequence of four Group Ones in succession at the Kildare track on the final day of Irish Champions Festival and that kicks off with the O’Brien-trained Bedtime Story a hot favourite to extend her unbeaten run to five in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (3.0).
The Frankel filly stopped a few hearts when narrowly obliging at odds of 1/14 in the Group Two Debutante Stakes at the same track last month and the market leader might not have it all her own way this time around either.
Red Letter is being thrown straight into Group One company by Ger Lyons after her impressive maiden win here in July and is respected under Colin Keane but British raider Simmering may be of even more interest.
Dylan Browne McMonagle retains the mount on Ollie Sangster’s exciting juvenile after guiding her to Group Two success at Deauville last month and with just 2lbs to find on Bedtime Story based on official ratings, she could prove the fly in the ointment at around 5/1.
Juveniles also get their chance to shine in the National Stakes (4.10) as another unbeaten streak of an O’Brien runner is put on the line, this time the Futurity Stakes winner Henri Matisse.
Moore’s mount was more impressive than the bare form of his one-length win over course and distance that day suggests but that will have to be improved on again as Charlie Appleby’s British raider Aomori City rates a big danger in the blue of Godolphin. King ‘Henri’ may just narrowly edge that tasty duel.