O’Brien makes history as Paddington storms to St James’s Palace success
The all-conquering Aidan O’Brien moved one ahead of Sir Michael Stoute as the winning-most trainer at Royal Ascot when the rapidly improving Paddington (Siyouni) produced a dominant effort to land yesterday’s St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m).
With victory, the colt remains unbeaten in four starts this season, a triumphant run which includes the Irish 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) on his previous outing.
Ridden by Ryan Moore, Paddington was always in touch with the leaders in a three-wide position before making headway rounding the home bend. Moving up to the outside of English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) hero Chaldean (Frankel) at the two-furlong marker, Moore asked his mount for an effort and the pair powered clear to beat his John and Thady Gosden-trained rival by three and three-quarter lengths.
“He stepped well and then two of the boys kicked on and I lost my cover going into the bend. I didn’t want Frankie [Dettori, rider of Chaldean] going on, but maybe I should have been a bit cold and ridden him further back,” Moore said.
“He took me there quite easily, put his foot down and found plenty. He’s a very good colt who is improving and improving. He has a lot of class, he travelled into it easily and quickened up past them.”
Yesterday’s victory for Paddington, who takes his career record to five wins from six starts, took Aidan O’Brien’s Royal Ascot winner’s tally to 83, having earlier in the day had River Tiber (Wootton Bassett) land the Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f), the double moving him one ahead of Sir Michael Stoute (82) as the all-time leading trainer at the royal meeting.
“He’s very exciting. Ryan [Moore] gave him a lovely ride – I thought he was excellent on him,” O’Brien said.
“The unusual thing is he is able to quicken. He’s very easy to get a position and that is the big thing, and what makes good horses great.
“The lads will have to think about whether they want to go to Goodwood for the Sussex Stakes. We will tell them after ten days how he is, and then they will decide between themselves what they want to do. But he has all the options, because he has the speed to be a top miler, like we see, so it’s very exciting.”
Chaldean’s jockey Frankie Dettori, who also had to settle for second aboard Inspiral (Frankel) in the Queen Anne Stakes earlier on the card, was complimentary about his mount post-race.
“He is a super horse and found one too good today, but he was a good second. It was a solid run,” Dettori said of the Andrew Balding-trained colt.
The Roger Varian-trained Charyn (Dark Angel) finished third, beaten four lengths by the winner, having trailed by a similar distance behind the Coolmore-owned colt when fourth in the Irish 2,000 Guineas last start.
“I’m delighted with how he ran and he seems to be improving,” Varian said. “He’s versatile, tough and genuine. Now we’ll have to place him to win one of these. I don’t think he’s out of place in this company and I think he’ll keep improving all year.”
A son of Haras de Bonneval stallion Siyouni (Pivotal), who is available for covers to southern hemisphere time this year, Paddington (3 c Siyouni – Modern Eagle by Montjeu) is the fourth foal out of the Listed-winning mare Modern Eagle, making him a half-brother to Listed-placed winner Masterpiece (Mastercraftsman).