Lordan delivers Waterville from impossible position for Cesarewitch victory

Sunday: Curragh

Wayne Lordan produced one of the rides of this or any other season as he brought bottomweight Waterville from last to first to win the €600,000 Friends of the Curragh Irish Cesarewitch for Aidan O'Brien.

Anyone with an investment in the 5-1 favourite would have been tempted to tear up their ticket past the halfway point. With 29 horses in front of him, his chance appeared to be slim and none, with slim having already left town. But a confident Lordan crept closer and even came up the inner.

With a furlong to run he had a wall of about ten horses in front of him, but when daylight came the horse flew and got up in the shadows of the post to nail the Willie Mullins pair Echoes In Rain and Lot Of Joy.

It was an incredible ride in what is the most valuable Flat handicap in Europe and the smile on the trainer's face afterwards has not been broader for any of his Derby winners.

O'Brien said: "He's a horse with an awful lot of ability and back in the winter we thought he was our Derby horse, but he has just been very backward mentally. We gave him time to mature.

"Wayne gave him the most incredible ride. He kept calm and kept nursing him and nursing him from a long way back and delivered him right on the line. It was unbelievable.

"He's a massive horse and next year he's going to be something different. Over the winter he's going to turn into a different animal and he will be very much at home over Cup trips next year."

Lordan added: "Aidan said he was very well, and to take my time! He said to ride the horse with loads of confidence and he hit the line well.

"He has a big engine and going that trip you can put him wherever you want in a race. When I got to the line in front, I can say that I enjoyed it."

The son of Camelot was cut to around 6-1 (from 14), and generally favourite, for the Newmarket Club Godolphin Cesarewitch at Newmarket on October 8.

Power in command

There was a healthy sense of deja vu watching the Group 3 William Hill Ireland Renaissance Stakes, as the Tim Easterby-trained Art Power repeated his success in this race from 2021 in remarkably similar fashion.

David Allan allowed the grey son of Dark Angel to coast along close to the pace and while one or two of his rivals stuck around to try to challenge a bit longer than the previous year, he still stretched away in trademark fashion to win by an easy three lengths.

The James Horton-trained Sam Maximus under PJ McDonald made it a one-two for the visitors.

Allan said: "He bounced the gates, travelled strongly and put it to bed quite nicely. He did the same last year.

"I imagine he'll go on now to Champions Day at Ascot, he was fourth in that last year after this and hopefully he can get a bit closer.

"He likes a bit of cut in the ground and it was much too quick for him at Haydock. He didn't run his race that day. We just want to win a Group 1 with him now, I think he deserves it."

Results, replays and analysis

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