Key events
Two more records for Aidan O’Brien as Chester dominance continues
Aidan O’Brien took sole ownership of the record for victories in both the Dee Stakes and the Ormonde Stakes here on Thursday, thanks to a second double in as many days at the May meeting with Mount Kilimanjaro and Illinois. Both winners were delivered with precision by Ryan Moore to lead in the straight, and within sight of the winning line in the case of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Moore’s mount was under a ride and seemingly going nowhere with just over a furlong to run in the 10-furlong Dee Stakes, a trial for the Derby at Epsom next month, but when Moore finally coaxed him through the gears, Mount Kilimanjaro produced a relentless run down the middle of the track to overhaul High Stock a few strides from the post.
The winner was cut to around 20-1 for the Derby but, like the runner-up, could switch instead to the French equivalent – the Prix du Jockey Club on 1 June – over the same trip as Thursday’s trial.
Mount Kilimanjaro brought up a dozen wins for O’Brien in the Dee Stakes, one more than Barry Hills, who was similarly dominant in the Dee in the 1980s and 1990s, while Illinois’ strong-staying success in the Ormonde took the trainer to seven victories in the race, one more than the now-retired Sir Michael Stoute.
Illinois was the runner-up in two Group One events last year including the 12-furlong Grand Prix de Paris and he is now likely to drop back to a mile-and-a-half for the Coronation Cup on the first day of Epsom’s Derby meeting.
With the meeting’s Classic trials now in the form book, attention at Chester will turn to tomorrow’s Chester Cup, the track’s most storied and historic race. A field of 16 runners is due off at 3.05 for two full circuits of the Roodee, with a first prize of £86k and, according to tradition, an enormous Cheshire Cheese for the winner. The blog will be back for the big betting race of the week, but for now, I’m signing off from the Roodeye to take a final swing through the Chester Cup form.
Illnois has an entry in the Coronation Cup at Epsom on 6 June over a mile-and-a-half and that could well be his next stop. He’s now around 8-1 to get a first Group One win on his record.
Aidan O’Brien was tied with the now-retired Sir Michael Stoute with six previous Ormonde Stakes winners this morning, but Illinois’ win gives him sole ownership of another record.
3.05 Chester result: Illinois gives O’Brien record seventh Ormonde
1. ILLINOIS 6-5 FAV, 2. Al Qareem 7-1.
Al Qareem leads early, Illinois next, Absurde held up in fourth … Coming past the stands, no change in the order and now they are down the back … slight injection of pace from Al Qareem, half a mile out he’s three clear … Illinois in pursuit, Absurde still going ok on the rail … turning in, Illinois leads, Absurde trying to chase him down … Absurde up the rail, making ground but he’s not going to get there … Illinois wins, from Al Qareem, with Absurde third across the line.
Off and running in the Ormonde Stakes…
They are at the post for the Ormonde Stakes and Illinois is the 11-10 favourite with Absurde at 2-1 and Al Qareem on 13-2.
Ormonde Stakes: Absurde the big rival to Illinois
The big head-to-head in the Ormonde Stakes, due off at 3.05, is also a clash of Britain’s reigning champion trainers on the Flat and over jumps, who are also, for the first time, both based in Ireland
Willie Mullins has said that he has no interest in following the lead set 70 years ago by Vincent O’Brien, who was champion jumps trainer in Britain before switching to a fabulously successful career on the Flat. But he has previously missed out only narrowly on a famous win in the Melbourne Cup, most recently when Absurde was beaten less than two lengths in fifth last November.
Absurde is also very useful over jumps, having won the County Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2024 and finished a close third in the same race this year.
A snippet on Tricky Tel, the winner of the second race here, via ITV’s anchor Ed Chamberlin. He is, it seems, named after the father of joint-owner Michael Owen, who apparently acquired the moniker as a result of his rare talent for Spoof.
That was a record 12th winner of the Dee Stakes for Aidan O’Brien – he now has sole ownership of the record having previously shared it with Barry Hills – and Mount Kilimanjaro gets a quote of 20-1 (from 33-1) from Paddy Power for the Derby at Epsom on 7 June.
Here’s that stretch run from Ryan Moore’s mount: quite something to ultimately win cosily given where he came from.
The news on High Stock, meanwhile, is that he is likely to be aimed at the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) at Chantilly on 1 June.
2.35 Chester result: Mount Kilimanjaro explosive in final furlong
1. MOUNT KILIMANJARO evens fav, 2. High Stock 11-4.
What a stretch run by Mount Kilimanjaro, like Aidan O’Brien’s winners here yesterday he took time to go through the gears but absolutely powered home when he hit full stride.
Off and running in the Dee Stakes … !
High Stock slightly slow to stride, Oisin Murphy rides him up the inside to sit fourth as Great David leads from Isambard Brunel, Mount Kilimanjaro fifth going past the stands …
Great David still leads down the back, Calla Lagoon also prominent, no move yet from Mount Kilimanjaro with half a mile to run …
Three out, still Great David leads, Mount Kilimanjaro taking his time to find his stride, High Stock moves alongside the leader but here comes Mount Kilimanjaro! He looked beaten a furlong out but he’s finally got going and gets up to win!
The runners are at the post for the Dee Stakes, hard not to be taken by Mount Kilimanjaro in the paddock and he’s a firm favourite at 5-6, with High Stock next at 3-1.
3.05 CHESTER, ORMONDE STAKES, GROUP THREE, 1M 5F 87YD
The Ormonde Stakes is one of the younger events on the traditional May meeting schedule, dating back only as far as 1936, but it has a rich history and some top-class names on the roll of honour, including the mare Quashed, who won the first running and beat the American-trained Omaha by a short-head in the Gold Cup at Ascot a few weeks later in one of the most famous and epic duels in racing history.
This year’s renewal also promises to be a fascinating head-to-head, as Illinois, from the Aidan O’Brien stable, takes on Willie Mullins’s Absurde, a high-class performer both over hurdles and on the Flat.
Illinois’ best run last year was in the St Leger at Doncaster, where he was a close second behind his stable companion, Jan Brueghel.
Chester 2.05 result: Tricky Tel lands a gamble on debut
1. TRICKY TEL 5-6 FAV, 2. Call Me By My Name 25-1, 3. Senorita Vega 9-1.
They are off and running at Chester, and Bring It On is not with the field, he wouldn’t go into the stalls …
Davvy and Tricky Tel both prominent, Maynora close up alongside Call Me By My Name, … Tricky Tel takes it up at the top of the straight … he’s going clear, wins easily … the money was spot on, a double in the first two races for Hugo Palmer and Oisin Murphy.
They are behind the stalls for the maiden here at 2.05, Tricky Tel is down to even-money to give Oisin Murphy a quickfire double. Dubai Time at 4-1 is second-favourite, Bring It On is 7-1 and it’s 14-1 bar.
CHESTER 2.35, DEE STAKES, LISTED, 1M 2F 70YD
Even the most devoted fans of Chester’s May meeting – and I’m very much a paid-up member of the club – would claim that the Dee Stakes is a major Derby trial, and it has not been won by the subsequent Derby winner since Kris Kin beat three rivals back in 2003.
As a result, it has yo-yoed between Group Three and Listed status over the years, but on paper at least, this year’s renewal looks a cut above several recent runnnings, as Aidan O’Brien’s two-strong challenge faces real opposition from High Stock, the Wood Ditton Stakes winner, and, on paper at least, Ralph Beckett’s Calla Lagoon. Calla Lagoon, though, is a massive drifter in the betting today, out to 20-1 from 5-1 overnight, in the face of serious support for O’Brien’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the mount of Ryan Moore.
Mount Kilimanjaro rounded off his juvenile career as the one-and-a-quarter length runner-up behind his stable companion, Twain – another leading ante-post fancy for the Derby – in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud in Paris last October.
High Stock is the only other runner attracting significant support for today’s race and is currently 4-1 to back up his win in the Wood Ditton Stakes at Newmarket last month when, like all the runners in the race, he was making his racecourse debut.
Zanzoun ‘off behind’ and will miss outing
Away from the Roodee, there’s news of another setback for the John & Thady Gosden stable as their filly Zanzoun, who took the Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket’s Craven meeting, was “off behind” after exercise on Thursday morning and will miss her intended engagement in the Poule D’Essai Des Pouliches (French 1,000 Guineas) on Sunday.
“John and Thady called to say after she cantered they weren’t happy with her and she looked a little tight behind,” Barry Mahon, the European racing manager for Juddmonte, Zanzoun’s owner, said earlier today.
“When you are not in peak condition, you can’t be heading off to the races, so we will have to sit and wait and diagnose whether it is muscular or something a bit more – and when she tells us she’s ready, we will make a plan then. Unfortunately, she’s just not ready for Sunday.”
Here’s the closing stages of the opener from the At The Races Twitter/X feed:
Fair Taxes went off favourite in the end and Saffie Osborne did her best to exploit her ideal draw but the course-specialist Roman Dragon was always tracking the pace going well and came with an irresistible run down the middle of the track to grab the win under Oisin Murphy.
Chester 1.30 result: Roman Dragon fired up for sixth course win
1. ROMAN DRAGON 8-1, 2. Rosenspur 12-1, 3. Balmoral Lady 16-1.
Off and running in the 1.30 Chester …
Good break by Fair Taxes, Rosenspur right there too, approaching halfway already …. Rosenspur leads into the straight, Fair Taxes staying on better though, here comes Roman Dragon under Oisin Murphy, he’s got there with something spare, Roman Dragon wins for Hugo Palmer at 8-1.
The runners are going down for the opening sprint handicap, the market is struggling to separate Fair Taxes and Jer Batt at around 7-2.
Current full betting list:
7-2 Fair Taxes & Jer Batt
13-2 Angel Shared & Roman Dragon
10-1 Copper Knight
12-1 Fair Wind
14-1 Dream Composer, Balmoral Lady & Rosenspur
25-1 Manila Scouse & Dickieburd
40-1 Balon D’Or
CHESTER 2.05, MAIDEN STAKES, 2YO, 5F 110YD
Maiden races – for horses that have yet to win – don’t normally make it onto the ITV Racing schedule, but then, most maiden races are not worth £20k to the winner and this is a contest that will have been circled in red in many trainers’ programme books for some time. The original 13-runner field at declaration time has been reduced to 11 as, surprise, surprise, the horses drawn in stalls 12 and 13 have both been scratched. Bad case of high-numberitis, the cynics might suggest. Four of the remaining 11 runners are making their seasonal debut today, including two from Hugo Palmer’s local yard, which has plenty of success on the Roodee. One of those – Tricky Tel, the mount of Oisin Murphy – has been strongly backed today, and is currently priced up at even-money, while stable companion Dubai Time is the 8-1 second-favourite. That feels quite significant given that neither horse has been seen in public as yet, but I plumped for Dubai Time as the pick for the Racing Post tipping table yesterday and so feel obliged to stick with it, albeit that this is a race where only the foolish, brave or very well-informed will be getting involved.
SELECTION: DUBAI TIME
HUNTINGDON 1.45, MARES’ HANDICAP HURDLE, 2M 3F 137YD
After a trip to Newton Abbot yesterday, Huntingdon gets the nod to strut its stuff for the ITV Racing audience today, although this looks like a very trappy little handicap hurdle that is perhaps best left alone for betting purposes. Four of the runners lined up for the same Class 2 race – two levels above this one – at Cheltenham last time, but all were well beaten or pulled up bar Ile De Jersey in sixth. Of Course You Can’s best form is at Ludlow, which is right-handed and flat, so she should be at home around Huntingdon, but if pressed for a pick, it would probably be the lightly-raced Taxus Baccata, who returns to hurdles in first-time cheekpieces on a reasonable mark.
SELECTION: TAXUS BACCATA
Jumping ahead briefly to Saturday, the final fields are through for the Derby and Oaks trials at Lingfield this weekend.
There are just three runners in the Oaks Trial, although it does feature the seasonal debut of Aidan O’Brien’s Giselle, a supremely well-bred daughter of Frankel out of Newspaperofrecord, who took the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf in 2018. She was an unlucky third in a Group Three on her final start at two and is currently a 20-1 shot for the Oaks.
Lingfield’s Derby Trial is longer on numbers, with seven declared runners headed by two colts from the O’Brien yard: Puppet Master, who was fourth in the Ballysax Stakes in March, and Stay True, the winner of his only start to date, in a maiden at Leopardstown in early April.
CHESTER 1.30, HANDICAP, 5F
A quick dash around the five-furlong course to open Thursday’s proceedings, and it may not be necessary to look much further than stall one for the likeliest winner. Fair Taxes, a four-year-old trained in Ireland by Ross O’Sullivan, likes to make the running, has the perfect pitch by the rail and showed that he acts around here when finishing third, off a 1lb lower mark, on similar ground here last August. He was beaten less than two lengths that day having had the worst of the draw in 12. Jer Batt has returned in fine fettle and posted a fine effort on the clock at Musselburgh last time, when running for the first time in 175 days, but he is out in stall nine, which is hardly ideal.
SELECTION: FAIR TAXES.
Preamble
Good afternoon from the Roodee in Chester – and welcome back to anyone who was following the action yesterday – on day two of Chester’s May festival, ahead of the Dee Stakes, the meeting’s second Derby trial, and the Group Three Ormonde Stakes for stayers.
The Dee has blown occasionally hot but generally cold as a pointer towards the Derby over the course of its 212-year history (though it may well be the only recognised Derby trial that has been won by a future Grand National winner, as Voluptuary, the Dee winner in 1881, ran unplaced at Epsom a few weeks later and landed the Aintree spectacular three years after that).
But today’s renewal looks stronger than several recent renewals, not least as the recent Wood Ditton Stakes winner, High Stock, is among the runners. The Wood Ditton, over a mile at Newmarket’s Craven meeting in mid-April, is restricted to unraced three-year-olds and frequently includes a future top-notcher that, for whatever reason, simply couldn’t get to a track as a juvenile. High Stock is bred to get at least a mile-and-a-quarter and today’s race is the perfect way to find out if it might be worth supplementing him for the Derby.
The Ormonde, meanwhile, is also a fascinating contest which pits Illinois, the runner-up in last year’s St Leger, against the impressively versatile Absurde, a former winner of the County Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival who has performed with credit in the last two runnings of the Melbourne Cup.
The Dee is due off at 2.35 while the Ormonde is at 3.05, and the card opens at 1.30 with a five-furlong handicap in which, unusually for a track where the draw is all-important in sprints, has a field of a dozen runners with no withdrawals from the higher-numbered stalls.
