Irish Sunday Preview: Mount Everest will be hard to conquer

An eight-race card at Naas features four group contests but they’re saving the best to almost last with the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at 5.05 the seventh race of the day.

Vincent O’Brien won the two-year-old mile contest on no fewer than 14 occasions between 1962 and 1991, including with the likes of Nijinsky and Sadler’s Wells, but Ballydoyle’s domination hasn’t let up in more recent decades. Indeed, Aidan O’Brien has already passed his namesake’s total and boasts a current score of 17. First successful with Johan Cruyff in 1996, Aidan O’Brien has won the Beresford in each of the last seven years, and while not all of his winners turned out to be future stars, the last couple, Capri and Saxon Warrior, have won British classics so this year’s winner will have plenty to live up to.

O’Brien had eight of the sixteen entries at the five-day stage, with his three remaining declared runners all being maiden winners last time out. Sovereign ran right away with a weak contest on heavy ground at Galway, while 1.3m guinea yearling Japan still looked green when landing the odds on soft ground at Listowel and will be suited by the return to a mile, but Mount Everest could be the pick of the three. He was Ryan Moore’s chosen mount (as he is again on Sunday), ahead of subsequent National Stakes runner-up Anthony Van Dyck, when both needed the experience on their respective debuts before being turned over at short odds at Cork next time. But Mount Everest is learning all the time and made no mistake back at the Curragh last month. With further improvement to come, he should be able to start living up to his big reputation from now on.

MOUNT EVEREST (2yo c Galileo - Six Perfections, by Celtic Swing) breaks his maiden at third asking in the one mile Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Curragh Racecourse for Aidan and Donnacha O’Brien @FlaxmanSuperFan pic.twitter.com/yuY8TjqlSj

— ᴋᴀʀᴀᴋᴏɴᴛɪᴇ𝟣𝟦 (@Karakontie14) 25 August 2018

Of those bidding to foil O’Brien’s attempt to win an eighth straight Beresford, Michael O’Callaghan’s Power of Now is going the right way, though was fortunate to keep the race when landing a maiden over course and distance recently after causing what looked like considerable interference to the runner-up. The Ger Lyons-trained Pythion needed every yard when dead-heating in a maiden at Leopardstown over this trip in July, while Guaranteed had Mount Everest further back when second on his debut before going one better for Jim Bolger at the Curragh, but was a long way behind Anthony Van Dyck on softer ground in the Futurity Stakes there last time.    

Earlier on the card, two-year-old fillies get their chance in the Weld Park Stakes over seven furlongs. O’Brien hasn’t dominated this contest to the same extent as the Beresford, but his sole representative Hermosa gives him a strong hand here too. Hermosawas the outsider of O’Brien’s three runners in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh a fortnight ago but showed a good deal of improvement to fare best of them, staying on late to snatch third behind Skitter Scatter in the final strides. Another furlong would doubtless suit the daughter of Galileo ideally, but she’s respected with further improvement to come.

However, Hermosa could be worth taking on with Jessica Harrington’s progressive filly Trethias. She shaped really well when a never-nearer fourth in a competitive listed race at Leopardstown on the eve of the Moyglare, doing well to get as close as she did having been dropped out from a poor draw. She needs to turn the tables on runner-up Foxtrot Liv from that race, but Trethias (from the red-hot family of Lah Ti Dar and Too Darn Hot) is going very much the right way.

With Alpha Centauri to come, the @Jessica_Racing team are off to a flyer as Sparkle'N'Joy lands the opener at @LeopardstownRC. We're under way on @IrishChampsWknd! pic.twitter.com/OjEuLkMex5

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) 15 September 2018

Both Mick Channon and Sir Mark Prescott have been successful in this race in the past but their representatives Chynna and Brassica have plenty to find, though the latter is certainly open to improvement after getting off the mark at the second attempt at Beverley earlier in the month.

Irish St Leger fourth Twilight Payment sets the standard in the Loughbrown Stakes over two miles. His last win came in a listed contest at Down Royal in July, but the Irish St Leger was the third time the Jim Bolger gelding has come off worse in meetings with Flag of Honour. Twilight Payment could prove vulnerable to another three-year-old here too as Falcon Eight has looked an exciting prospect in winning both his starts for Dermot Weld. Bred in the purple and open to more improvement, he’s shaped like a stayer in winning over shorter trips at the Curragh and Killarney and makes more appeal than a trio of Flag of Honour’s stablemates or the ungenuine Renneti.

In the Renaissance Stakes over six furlongs Gordon Lord Byron at the age of ten is very much the old man of the line-up but has the best form on his day too. This will be his fifth consecutive appearance in the Renaissance, having twice been placed when it was run at the Curragh. He’s still capable of smart form as he showed when second to Expert Eye in the City of York Stakes last month, but he needs to bounce back quickly from a below-par effort in the Czech Republic just last weekend. This is a trappy contest all round with good recent form in short supply, but there’s no disputing that Jessica Harrington’s useful handicapper St Brelades Bay, a course and distance winner to boot, comes into this in good heart, and that may well be enough despite the step up in grade.