Donn McClean recalls seven of the best Irish-trained Classic winners at Newmarket

Nijinsky – 1970

The Youtube footage is a little grainy, and the colours are less than vivid, but you can still pick Nijinsky out, moving up between horses at the three-furlong marker under a motionless Lester Piggott.

Piggott didn’t move until they eased to the front on the run into the Dip, then he glanced to his right and changed his hands, and the pair of them scooted two lengths clear of their rivals and won easily.

Raymond Smith quotes Piggott in his 1997 book on Vincent O’Brien: “Because he (Nijinsky) was a big horse, you noticed him more than the others. When he galloped beside other horses, he made them look like selling platers.”

As a juvenile, Vincent O’Brien’s colt added the Railway Stakes, the Anglesey Stakes and the Beresford Stakes to his maiden win, then went over to England and won the Dewhurst Stakes. As a three-year-old, he won the Gladness Stakes before winning the Guineas, and he added the Derby and the Irish Derby before taking on the older horses again in the King George and dancing in.

A ringworm infection threatened to derail his season, but Vincent O’Brien got him back for the St Leger in September, which he duly won, thereby completing the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. He could have added the Arc de Triomphe the following month too, had he not veered to his left after hitting the front close home, going down by a head in the end to the Prix du Jockey Club winner Sassafras.

Nijinsky’s place in the pantheon of racing greats was already assured though and, 50 years later, he is still the last horse to complete the Triple Crown.

Refuse To Bend – 2003

Refuse To Bend looked more like a Derby horse than a Guineas horse early in his career. By Sadler’s Wells and a half-brother to Melbourne Cup winner Media Puzzle, the Moyglare Stud horse was ostensibly bred to go further than a mile.

But, winner of the Group 1 National Stakes over seven furlongs at The Curragh on his second and final run at two, the Dermot Weld-trained colt showed plenty of pace in winning the Leopardstown Guineas Trial on his debut as a three-year-old, carrying his 7lb penalty to a half-length victory.

As short for the Derby as he was for the Guineas afterwards, connections always knew that he had pace, and he took his chance at Newmarket. Under a characteristically astute, no-nonsense Smullen ride that maximised efficiency, the Moyglare colt travelled well through his race, up on the far side from his low draw, as the field congregated towards the stands side.

When his rider gave him a squeeze on the run into the Dip, he picked up willingly, grabbed the rising ground when he met it, and kept on strongly all the way to the line. There were firsts all round, a first 2000 Guineas for Moyglare Stud, a first 2000 Guineas for Dermot Weld, a first 2000 Guineas for Pat Smullen.

The Sadler’s Wells colt was well beaten in the Derby, for which he was sent off as favourite but, sold to Godolphin and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, he proved that he was top class too as a four-year-old, winning the Queen Anne Stakes over a mile at Royal Ascot and following up by landing the Eclipse over 10 furlongs.

Finsceal Beo – 2007

It took Finsceal Beo a little while to find her métier as a juvenile. Beaten in a nursery at Tralee after winning her maiden, the Mr Greely filly could finish only sixth behind Miss Beatrix in the Goffs Million.

Even so, trainer Jim Bolger had no problem allowing her take her chance in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp on Arc de Triomphe weekend, where she belied odds of 20/1 and won easily. And she proved that there was no fluke about that win when she followed up by landing the Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket on her final run at two.

Sent off a short-priced favourite for the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket the following May, she won that fairly easily too, coming nicely clear of the John Oxx-trained Arch Swing through the final two furlongs.

It was part one of an audacious plan, to complete the 1000 Guineas treble: English Guineas, French Guineas, Irish Guineas. It as a really tough ask, the French 1000 Guineas, the Poule d’Essai Des Pouliches, was just seven days after the Newmarket Guineas. Finsceal Beo nearly pulled it off too, she was just caught deep inside the final furlong at Longchamp, going down by a head in the end to Darjina.

It was a real shame, a Guineas treble is not easily done. Even so, unbowed, two weeks after her narrow defeat in France, Finsceal Beo went back to The Curragh and won the Irish Guineas. A Guineas double is not easily done either.

Henrythenavigator – 2008

It was some tussle between Henrythenavigator and New Approach in the 2000 Guineas in 2008. New Approach led from flagfall, and Kevin Manning kicked for home on the run into the Dip as Johnny Murtagh weaved his way through from the rear on Henrythenavigator.

The pair of them had it to themselves from the furlong marker, it was just a case of whether or not Aidan O’Brien’s horse had enough real estate left between there and the winning line to catch the Jim Bolger colt. He did. Just. He got up and won by a head.

It was a similar story when the pair of them met again three weeks later in the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh, 1-2 in the same order, even if the margin of victory was more decisive, and their respective paths diverged thereafter. New Approach, by Galileo out of Nassau Stakes and Irish Champion Stakes winner Park Express, stepped up in trip and won the Derby, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Champion Stakes, while Henrythenavigator, a son of Kingmambo out of the Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Sequoyah, stayed at a mile, winning the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and followed up by winning the Sussex Stakes.

The final run of Henrythenavigator’s career was in the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita where, on the Pro-Ride surface, Aidan O’Brien’s colt ran a massive race to finish second to Raven’s Pass.

Sea The Stars – 2009

Sea The Stars was never going to be under the radar, a half-brother to Galileo, trained by John Oxx. Even so, he wasn’t that well fancied for his racecourse debut at The Curragh in July of his two-year-old season. He finished a close-up fourth that day, just a length behind the winner Driving Snow, and he was never beaten again.

He raced in two more races as a juvenile, in a maiden at Leopardstown and in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at The Curragh, and he won them both. He made his three-year-old debut in the Guineas at Newmarket, where he overcame aan interrupted preparation to win well under Michael Kinane. It was the rider’s fourth and final 2000 Guineas, and it was John Oxx’s first.

If there were any doubts about the Cape Cross colt’s stamina for the Derby, his rider didn’t have them, and he rode him with characteristic confidence, the pair of them coming home almost two lengths clear of favourite Fame And Glory. Then he won the Eclipse, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes, and he rounded off a glittering career by winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.

Six wins from six runs as a three-year-old, six Group 1s, one every month, May, June, July, August, September, October. After the Arc, John Oxx exhaled: job done.

Dawn Approach – 2013

Jim Bolger didn’t have to wait too much longer after New Approach’s narrow defeat to land his first 2000 Guineas.

Dawn Approach, a son of the afore-mentioned New Approach, went unbeaten through his juvenile year. He won the first two-year-olds’ race of the season at The Curragh in March 2012, and he rattled off five more wins as a two-year-old, the Coventry Stakes, the National Stakes and the Dewhurst Stakes among them.

He was sent off a warm favourite for the 2000 Guineas on his seasonal debut the following May, and he won like one. He hit the front on the run to the furlong marker under Kevin Manning, and he came away to win by five lengths.

A Derby tilt proved fruitless four weeks later, he was far too keen through the early stages of the race but, remarkably, just two and a half weeks later and dropping back down to a mile, he bounced back and won the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, staying on strongly to get the better of Toronado in a thriller.

Minding – 2016

Minding was bred to be good, by Galileo out of Coronation Stakes and Matron Stakes winner Lillie Langtry, and she raced right up to her breeding, and beyond.

Aidan O’Brien’s filly raced five times as a juvenile, finishing second twice and winning three times. Her last two wins as a juvenile were in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh and the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, and she was named Cartier Champion Two-Year-Old Filly.

It wasn’t surprising, then, that she was sent off as warm favourite for the 1000 Guineas the following May on her three-year-old debut, and she won like a warm favourite should win. In the front rank from early, she travelled best of all to the cutaway and, when Ryan Moore got a little lower in the saddle and squeezed, she picked up impressively, coming away from her rivals under just a hands-and-heels ride.

It was a landmark race for Aidan O’Brien, the 250th Group 1 win of his career and, with Ballydoyle and Alice Springs filling the places behind their stable companion, a 1-2-3 in the fillies’ Classic.

After suffering a surprise defeat in the Irish 1000 Guineas on her next run, going down by a head to the Adrian Keatley-trained Jet Setting, Minding stepped up in trip to a mile and a half on her next run and won the Epsom Oaks. She added the Pretty Polly Stakes and the Nassau Stakes and, after finishing third in the Irish Champion Stakes, bounced back to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on British Champions’ Day at Ascot in October, keeping on well to get home by a half a length from Prix Jacques le Marois winner Ribchester.

At the end of the year, at the Cartier awards, she was named Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, and Horse of the Year.

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