SUNDAY TIMES
24TH AUGUST 2024
Most horses progress from flat racing to hurdles, the Irish mare Magical Zoe has done the reverse to become a spectacular winner of this 20 runner Sky Bet Ebor, the richest handicap in Europe.
She was no mean hurdler, winning three of her eight races and being placed at the last two Cheltenham Festivals, finishing second in 2023 in the race named in honour of trainer Henry De Bromhead’s late son Jack and fourth in the County Hurdle in March.
It was after this that jockey Adrian Heskin said, “I may be putting myself out of a job but they don’t go fast enough for her over hurdles and she ought to run on the flat.” De Bromhead may have won Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Grand National renown over jumps but his skill with flat races was shown when he brought the filly Terms Of Endearnment to win on this course in May. He duly took Heskin’s cue, won a race with Magical Zoe at Down Royal in June and brought her here with enough support to see her start 11-2 favourite.
The race was marred by a fatal fracture to the leader Crystal Delight just before the turn. This left the Aidan O’Brien runner Queenstown in front but backers eyes on Magical Zoe could soon see that jockey Billy Lee had the power to make this the 6th Irish Ebor winner in the last 11 years.
“She travelled like a dream,” Lee said afterwards. “I was able to get out three and a half down without really going for her. As soon as I gave her the go-ahead just beside the furlong pole she picked up well. She’s a classy mare over hurdles and she’s a classy mare on the Flat, she’s done it well.”
The 25-1 outsiders Kheva and the splendidly named Oneforthegutter were second and third with the better backed Epic Poet and Hipop De Loire following on and Queenstown very disappointing. Henry De Bromhead was the exact reverse. He is two from two at York this year. “It’s my new favourite course,” he said.
The course has given racing four wonderful days to renew the faith and fans thrilled by City Of Troy’s magnificent win in the Juddmonte International on Wednesday should look across the Atlantic tomorrow evening when his likely rivals for November’s Breeders Cup Classic do battle in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.
Only Arcangues, a 133-1 shock in 1993, has won the Breeders Cup Classic on the unfamiliar American dirt service and it has long been a target of Aidan O’Brien and the Ballydoyle operation for whom the great Galileo was only 6th in 2001 and Giant’s Causeway was an unlucky second a year earlier.
City Of Troy’s sire Justify was an unbeaten Triple Crown winner in the States and if City Of Troy wins by the sea in Del Mar, California in two and a half months’ time his stud value will be such that in next year alone his earnings will be ten times the £2.3 million he has taken from his six wins on the track.
It will not be easy as Del Mar is a left handed oval and City Of Troy lugs right at the gallop. To prepare him O’Brien is planning to bring him back over the sea and gallop him hard on the artificial surfaces at either Southwell or Wolverhampton. The great trainer is presumably undecided on his choice. His reply when asked was “Southampton.”