Connections celebrate with Pat Smullen and Harzand
From the archive: LOG-IN for FREE and watch career highlights of Derby winner Harzand
By Sporting Life
17:26 · THU April 23, 2020
It's Irish week for us and today's recommended viewing is a look back on the fabulous career of the Dermot Weld-trained Harzand.
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2016 was the year of Harzand, owned by the Aga Khan, trained by Dermot Weld and ridden of course by Pat Smullen. He'd been fifth on his only start in a juvenile maiden but swiftly got to work in his Classic campaign with victory at Cork, scoring by 16 lengths from Sword Fighter.
The Ballysax was the preferred Derby trial and the son of Sea The Stars came from near the back of the field to run down Idaho and set up a dream date at Epsom.
The Derby itself was a relatively straightforward affair but things were pretty frantic pre-race as a desperately late foot problem prompted Weld to treat the horse on course for several hours in the run-up to the day's feature. He had a foot in a bucket of ice for two hours just before the off-time and even going to post Smullen was told to pull the horse out if he showed any signs of lameness. The last-gasp treated appeared to have worked with the good-natured Harzand taking Epsom's preliminaries in his stride, and the rest is history.
Idaho, third at Epsom, was back in the runner-up spot and he made the winner work at the Curragh, going down just half a length. But Harzand showed real grit to get the job done, after which he was never quite the same and could manage only eighth and ninth in the Irish Champion Stakes and Arc respectively.
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