華盛頓以Queen Anne為目標
George gives further boost to Ballydoyle after Sunday double
by Desmond Stoneham
AIDAN O'BRIEN on Sunday reported George Washington a big step closer to a dramatic return to the racecourse at Royal Ascot on a day when the power of his group of older horses was brutally exemplified by bloodless wins for Dylan Thomas and Yeats.
Irish Derby winner Dylan Thomas pulverised the opposition in the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp to open up all sorts of summer and autumn targets, while an easy victory for Yeats on fast ground at Navan set the pulses racing for an attempt to retain his Gold Cup crown at the royal meeting.
Yet it was the positive reaction of O'Brien to the task of mastering the brilliant miler, George Washington, returned from a stallion career, that was thestrongest pointer on Sunday.
Brought back into training last month after proving subfertile at Coolmore Stud, where he was replaced by then 2,000 Guineas second favourite, Holy Roman Emperor, George Washington has now gone back in training with the main string at Ballydoyle having previously been kept in isolation.
O'Brien said: "George is back with the other horses and he has done two pieces of work.
“His behaviour has been good so far and at this stage we are looking at him starting back racing in the Queen Anne Stakes.
"We will wait and see how he progresses over the next few weeks, but things are looking good so far."
Dylan Thomas won like a 2-5 favourite and set a race record time of 2m 7.90 secs, bettering the 2m 8.60s set established by Caro in 1971.
Once a gap opened, he moved to a challenging position by rider Christophe Soumillon and was unleashed at the furlong marker before going on to win effortlessly by two lengths.
Irish Wells ran with credit in second place and Doctor Dino ran on to be third in front of Boris de Deauville.
It was the first time that either O'Brien or Soumillon had won this famous Group 1 event and maintained their 100 per cent record together following the victory of Soldier Of Fortune in the Prix Noailles.
The early part of the 1m2 1/2f Ganay went as expected with pacemaker Sign Of The Wolf making the running for his half-brother Irish Wells, but Soumillon was never far away on the rail.
The champion jockey had to be a little patient early in the straight but things finally opened up well to let Dylan Thomas make his final surge for the line.
O'Brien was not present at Longchamp, but said afterwards: “He did it well. We were delighted and now we will take a serious lookat the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh next month.
“We'd also love to come back to Longchamp at the end of the year to run in the Arc de Triomphe.”
Soumillon, deputising for the banned Kieren Fallon, was in a superlative mode, saying: “Dylan Thomas is a horse out of the ordinary and he really impressed me.
“This colt is just bulging with talent and he has a superb temperament. He settled well early on and just flew by when I asked him to go on in the straight. He really quickened in a manner that you don't come across often.”
Irish Wells lost little in defeat, and was given every possible chance by Christophe Lemaire but the colt didn't possess the ability to accelerate like the winner.
He is probably a better individual over a longer distance and did reverse the Prix d'Harcourt form with both Boris de Deauville and Pearl Sky.
Trainer Francois Rohuat was quite frank afterwards, saying: “I've not really much to say as we were beaten by a better horse and we will try to avoid Dylan Thomas in the future.
“Irish Wells has been entered in the Coronation Cup at Ascot and hopefully we will be looking at the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud later in the season.”
Rider Domonique Boeuf added: “I have a feeling we were beaten by the best older middle-distance horse in Europe.”
Richard Gibson was pleased with Doctor Dino, who was making his seasonal debut.
The five-year-old was held up early on in fifth place and ran on really well from one and a half out.
“He ran really well for his first race of the season and Olivier Peslier was not hard on him,” Gibson said.
“The winner was in a different class and we now hope that Doctor Dino will be invited for the Singapore International Cup at Kranji next month.”
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