Auguste Rodin got back to winning ways at Leopardstown on Saturday as he took out the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.
The winner of the Epsom Derby and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh earlier this year, Auguste Rodin has disappointed hugely on two occasions, namely the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
This afternoon, however, the son of Deep Impact showed his battling qualities as he held off the challenge of his stable companion, and last year’s winner of the race, Luxembourg (Séamie Heffernan), by a half-length. Hollie Doyle aboard Nashwa was a short-head further back in third for John and Thady Gosden.
The three Ballydoyle runners, Luxembourg, Point Lonsdale (eventual 6th), and Auguste Rodin cut out the running in that order.
Ryan Moore and Auguste Rodin made their challenge on the outside of Luxembourg and Heffernan and fought off his stable companion’s challenge to claim a fourth career Group 1 success.
🗣 “It’s very satisfying to come back and prove how good he is.”
Ryan Moore hails Auguste Rodin and the training feats of Aidan O’Brien after a memorable Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes #IrishChampionsFestival | @BahrainTurfClub| @LeopardstownRC pic.twitter.com/d41tUMiPhu
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) September 9, 2023
The winning trainer, Aidan O’Brien, for whom it was a 12th Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes win, said of the winner:
“A couple of times this year it all went totally wrong. All the ducks went against him. Usually you want them all to go with you but they all went against him. Ryan (Moore, the winning rider), before it went completely wrong in Ascot, he took him out of the race so he did no mental or physical damage to him. That’s why he came out of the race so well.”
