It wasn't the showboating lap of honor many anticipated, but Auguste Rodin confirmed his status as the season's leading 3-year-old colt by winning ugly in an Irish Derby (G1) that was marred by a grisly mid-race incident.
Deep Impact colt Auguste Rodin completes the English-Irish Derby double!
— The Curragh Racecourse (@curraghrace) July 2, 2023
It's also a first win in the @DDFRacing Irish Derby for Ryan Moore, and Aidan O'Brien's 100th European Classic victory 👏#オーギュストロダン | #ディープインパクト | #競馬 | @Ballydoyle pic.twitter.com/GQ8wBZXMsp
In victory at a windswept the Curragh, the brilliant Epsom hero secured a landmark first success in the July 2 group 1 for Ryan Moore, who has now completed the grand slam of British and Irish Classics. For Auguste Rodin's peerless trainer Aidan O'Brien, it was a 100th European Classic and the fifth time he has completed the Epsom-Irish Derby double, but it was not nearly as straightforward or convincing as it might have been for a 4-11 shot.
As Seamie Heffernan led the field towards the half-mile pole aboard the stable's Adelaide River, Wayne Lordan sat beside him on fellow Ballydoyle runner San Antonio, with Moore following just behind and in between. Everything seemed to be going to plan.
Then, gallingly, San Antonio fractured his right front leg, catapulting Lordan to the floor and impeding Auguste Rodin, as well as Proud And Regal, Sprewell, and White Birch. San Antonio was fatally injured while Lordan was taken to Tallaght University Hospital for assessment. He was reported to be concussed, but fully conscious, talking and moving all limbs.
It was a morbid footnote to a historic occasion, and Moore suggested the incident played a part in his mount's underwhelming display. He was left with a lot of fresh air to aim at up the straight and, as he set about Auguste Rodin, you got the impression even Heffernan might have been surprised at how long it took them to go by.
Eventually, under some duress, Moore got him home by a length and a half. Covent Garden kept on to be third to complete a clean sweep of the places for O'Brien, a remarkable eighth time he has done that in this €1.25 million feature, and he also had the fourth in Peking Opera.
"We went quite slow and, because of what happened to Wayne, it wasn't smooth," Moore said. "He was just in front of me. I had to switch back in and back out and I just don't think it was quite right. I've had to ask him to go there and he has shut down a bit. It was an unusual race, stop-start. Today I don't think the race showed him to best effect."
Elaborating on how long it took him to get to grips with the runner-up, he added: "(Adelaide River) was getting it all his own way really, saving all the petrol and having the run of the race and he had plenty left when I got there. It didn't work out perfectly but he has won and for me he hasn't had any sort of race and I'd be looking forward to him improving."
Moore was claiming his elusive Irish Derby at the 11th attempt. "I've been looking forward to riding this horse since Epsom and was hoping he'd pick this race up," he said. "I'm lucky to get these chances and finally get an Irish Derby."
Paying tribute to O'Brien, he added: "I'm very lucky to have ridden for him for as long as I have. He's put me on these horses who are capable of winning these sorts of races. I'm just very grateful to be working for him."
The trainer himself, who was noncommittal about Auguste Rodin's future targets, echoed Moore's comments about the wind complicating the early fractions. Despite getting the century up in European Classics, he was in typically modest form after saddling what was the 19th horse to follow glory at Epsom with a win here.
"It didn't work out properly for Auguste Rodin but we are happy with him," O'Brien said. "He shows all the class that he has but he would be much better in a better race."
It was O'Brien's 15th Irish Derby, each representing one or other of the Coolmore ownership iterations. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, who share Auguste Rodin with George Von Opel's Westerberg vehicle, were all here to savor the occasion.
"The work he puts in, if you saw him every day, and I mean every day, he loves what he does," Tabor said of O'Brien. "He enjoys it, and you have to enjoy your work, because life is too short."
Short it may be, but O'Brien is squeezing a lot in, and he is not done yet.
