Sky Bet Ebor Festival: Paddington ready for York test
A week ago, we were preparing for the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood but the great game doesn’t stand still – and neither does the big race winner Paddington.
Here, in the palatial surroundings of his Ballydoyle home, there’s time for a mid-afternoon roll on the turf, a buck and a kick. As ever his exertions in England, a length-and-a-half defeat of Facteur Cheval for a seventh straight success and fourth Group One, barely took a toll. Already it seems he’s ready for more.
And that’s good news – for among the group watching him relax in the first warm sunshine this corner of County Tipperary has seen all day is York supremo William Derby.
The Juddmonte International is next.
It promises to be a race to remember. As well as the remarkable colt in front of us, the poster boy of the 2023 campaign, we’re set to see brilliant Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner Mostahdaf and last year’s Derby hero Desert Crown. It’s mouthwatering and the sort of showdown the Paddington team relish.
“We don’t ever really look at form, what’s happening around him and what’s running against him. We always hope in the big races the best horses run and are very happy to get beat if we happen to do so,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said.
“Everyone always wants to see the best horses together, so we know where we’re going the next time. He has done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s brave, quick, travels well, has tactical speed and a lot of class and we’re looking forward to every race with him.
“He ended up leading the last day at Goodwood which probably wasn’t ideal, he’s happy to do it though and Ryan [Moore] was happy to let him bowl along. Ryan goes out with a clear mind on this horse, is very confident on him whatever happens in a race. You always feel a lot of confidence from Ryan when he’s on him.
“He’s a very independent horse, happy to get a lead or make his own running and whatever way it falls will fall but we’re under no illusions the Juddmonte Internationl is always a very difficult race to win, other very good horses will be there, older horses, and we’re going to learn more about him and he’s going to learn more too.”
He won’t be heading across the Irish Sea alone either. A three-pronged attack on the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes is possible, horses are pencilled in for the Lonsdale, Gimcrack, Lowther and other big races including Savethelastdance in the Yorkshire Oaks.
If she’s to follow up her Irish Oaks triumph in just over two weeks’ time she’ll potentially have to reverse Epsom form with Soul Sister as well as prove herself against the older horses, including Rosscarbery.
Her upwardly mobile trainer Paddy Twomey is building a burgeoning reputation for his placing of horses and ability to plunder major prizes. So you sit up and listen when he says everything about the York race is perfect for his mare.
“She started off this season in the Munster Oaks and won that well and I think a mile-and-a-half is her optimum trip and that race was over a mile-and-a-half,” he said.
“Dropped to ten furlongs she ended up in a bit of a muddle in the Pretty Polly next time which is a race she has had no luck in, she was disqualified from it the year before so we’re just going to draw a line through that day.
“She ran a good race again the last day on ground that might have been softer than ideal over a mile and six at the Curragh when Emily Dickinson beat her and that should leave her spot on for York.
“I think the Yorkshire Oaks presents the ideal set of conditions for her. Track, trip, the long straight, the high tempo of a race like that with good fillies in it will suit her very well.
“She as a high cruising speed, she travels well through her races and finds generously and while she’s won from a mile to a mile-and-six, she’s very versatile, a mile-and-a-half seems to serve her best. She’s run her best races at the trip,” he enthused.
On Wednesday our brief visit to Ireland takes in stops at Joseph O’Brien’s and Willie Mullins’ to get updates on their teams for the Sky Bet Ebor itself. Twomey could run French Claim in there if the ground is soft.
Paddington will handle whatever the weather gods throw at him on day one, though, and the good news is he’s ready to rumble…again.
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