Danehill Dancer juvenile masters G1 rivals
27th July 2008
The unbeaten Mastercraftsman (2c Danehill Dancer-Starlight Dreams, by Black Tie Affair) put in a devastating performance to take the six-furlong G1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday by four and a half lengths.
Aidan O’Brien’s charge is now 5/1 favourite with some bookmakers for next year’s G1 2000 Guineas after his authoritative success under Johnny Murtagh.
The winner of the G2 Railway Stakes on his previous outing, Mastercraftsman was always travelling well before taking the lead over a furlong out to stroll home well clear of his rivals.
"Aidan told me during week the horse was ready for today," said Murtagh. "He's coming on all the time and although he had a hard race the last day he probably needed it
"We wanted to make it a good solid pace as he probably needs seven furlongs. He was very professional and honest, and has a great stride. Once I changed my hands today he took off."
Danehill Dancer himself was trained by Neville Callaghan to win the Phoenix Stakes in 1995 and Mastercraftsman was amazingly Aidan O’Brien’s ninth winner in the last 11 runnings of the G1 event. His previous winners include the likes of George Washington, One Cool Cat, Holy Roman Emperor, Fasliyev and Johannesburg.
O’Brien, speaking by telephone to the Racing Post, added: "We were going to step up Mastercraftsman to seven furlongs, but he’s been coming forward every week since he won the Railway Stakes and we decided to let him take his chance today. He has a lot of class and we’ll step him up in distance now.
"Mastercraftsman could go for the Futurity Stakes or the National Stakes, but we also have Rip Van Winkle (2c Galileo-Looking Back, by Stravinsky) and we may split them up between those races, with maybe Mastercraftsman going for the National and Rip Van Winkle for the other race."
Mastercraftsman - who was ranked 5lb clear of any other two-year-old this year in the Racing Post’s ratings - is a three-parts brother to Rock Of Gibraltar’s recent US G3 winner Genuine Devotion (3f Rock Of Gibraltar-Starlight Dreams, by Black Tie Affair).
It was another excellent day for Danehill Dancer, who had a further black-type success in France when the Aga Khan’s home-bred Alnadana (3f Danehill Dancer-Alnamara, by Linamix) took the Listed Prix de Bagatelle at Maisons-Laffitte.
"She missed the early part of the season because I wanted to give her more time," said winning trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre. "She had encountered races where she was held up off
a steady tempo, but today they went a decent pace which helped her. She can now go to Deauville to tackle group company."
Back at the Curragh, Danehill Dancer had an impressive juvenile winner when the David Wachman-trained Again (2f Danehill Dancer-Cumbres, by Kahyasi) beat 15 rivals to take the mile Grangecon Stud Fillies Maiden.
"She is still only a shell of a filly and still very green," said her rider Wayne Lordan.
