Fran Berry on Benvenuto Cellini and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival

The atmosphere at the Curragh on Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby day was very good. The attendance figure was slightly up but there was a real sense of pomp and ceremony put into it pre-race, with the Irish and UAE national anthems being played and the horses for the Classic itself being in the parade ring nice and early.

It attracted a good crowd and helped build a real buzz around the place and while the Curragh isn’t back to where it was, it’s definitely beginning to move in the right direction.

Benvenuto Cellini maintained what is officially his perfect season by winning the feature race.The Chester Vase winner was leaving the Epsom drama behind him and was clearly happier on the sounder surface. In keeping with what he showed on the Roodee, he travelled strongly and got a beautiful run up on the inside of Raaheeb with Rossa Ryan deciding he didn’t want to be on the rail aboard him.

That allowed Ryan Moore to make smooth, steady progress without having to use his horse at all to get the perfect position behind the leaders.

I think Christmas Day emerged with plenty of credit in second. There were a lot of questions being asked about how the Betfred Derby winner would cope away from soft ground and he proved he can handle it fine. He just lacks a turn of foot at this level over the trip but looks all about the St Leger to me.

He’ll relish the extra furlongs there and be hard to beat. You’d imagine he’ll follow in Lambourn’s hoofprints and take in the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur at York before then.

Pierre Bonnard for the first time this year showed his two-year-old form in third and could make up into a decent stayer at some stage too. He’d be interesting were he to go for the Goodwood Cup with his three-year-old allowance and could well end up being one for the Melbourne Cup if connections opt to take that route with him – and run the gauntlet of the vet checks to get there.

Raaheeb came out of Sandown slightly stiff and sore, the downhill run into the straight on the ground at the Curragh seemingly finding him out. He was on the back foot having surrendered his position early and I’d imagine he learned plenty there. He’s still an exciting colt.

I do think the King George is a good fit for Benvenuto Cellini. Yes, he’ll face a strong team of older horses but he’ll get a strong pace and fast ground at Ascot and that should suit him ideally. The nature of the track is another positive for him too.

I thought Estrange produced a really good performance to win the Pretty Polly, especially considering how the race had panned out. Three or four of the leading places early were taken up by outsiders in the field and it turned into quite a tactical race in that Colin Keane, Danny Tudhope and Dylan Browne McMonagle all wanted to be last to play their hand.

As a consequence, Estrange had little cover throughout the race and it’s to her credit that she quickened up as she did and kept on all the way to the line. Whether she’s up to winning an Arc I’m not sure but there are other big days for her.

She won with a good degree of authority and One Look and Red Letter both ran well to fill the places. They could perhaps find a race at this level on the continent this season.

Thundering On didn’t look quite herself in the parade ring beforehand and was reported to have coughed after the race too. Maybe the quick turnaround, faster ground, trip or a combination of the three found her out, but she wasn’t herself on Saturday and I think she’ll bounce back.

In terms of the two-year-olds, if we saw a star in action across the three days I think it was probably one of Aidan O’Brien’s maiden winners.

Alpha was hugely impressive in the opener on Sunday. Out of the champion racemare Alpha Centauri and off the back of a cracking debut run, she sauntered six lengths clear of her field and was reminiscent of what her dam did in winning her big races at three. She’s very exciting, as are the colts Giant Sequoai and Abraham Lincoln.

While nine-race cards in a day can have their pros and cons, it’s worth pointing out that there were eight individual winning trainers of the nine contests on Sunday and over the three days, 17 different trainers won the 25 races. There were two victories for Britain, with David O’Meara and William Haggas, and it was great to see such a spread of winners across the weekend.

Probably the most popular success was the veteran nine-year-old Big Gossey recording his tenth success at the Curragh with another win in a valuable sprint. It took his career-earnings to close to 600,000 euros and he got a huge cheer after the race.

Johnny Murtagh had a couple of winners and will have come away from the weekend feeling positive. The hunger is there for him to step up to the big league and try to win the Derby itself.

And as an aside for the future, D K Weld looks to have one bullet to fire this year with Purview who looks mighty exciting after making it two-from-two for the season in the Juddmonte silks.

In Sunday’s finale, In My Teens built on the promise of her previous runs to win in devastating style and given it was the first time she appeared to settle in her race, the manner of her performance was quite taking. Connections have an exciting filly on the flat but I’d imagine they’ll be keen to make use of her current hurdles rating of 113 at some stage this summer too.

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