Amelia Earhart continues O’Brien’s flying form
Ballydoyle filly lands Group Three under Gavin Ryan to finish season on a high.
Aidan O’Brien’s Amelia Earhart benefitted from a drop in class to win the Group Three QuinnBet Loughbrown Stakes at the Curragh.
Fourth in the Group One Prix Royal-Oak last Sunday, she was the 2-1 favourite for this contest under Gavin Ryan and ran out a ready length and a quarter winner.
It continued a fine weekend for Ballydoyle with the operation on the mark with Haffner, Sun Goddess and Benvenuto Cellini at the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.
“It’s been a very tough season, it’s probably been my furthest down on winners and rides so to get this on the last day is great,” said the winning rider Ryan.
“Aidan has always been very good to me, he’s a great supporter. He gave me a ride in Newmarket yesterday and put me up again here today. I can’t thank him enough.
“Obviously on paper she’s the filly with the class in the race. It’s the first time I’ve sat on her and she’s like riding a colt, she’s a big strong girl.
“It was all so handy for her. We wanted to be a little bit closer but she was a touch slow away from the gates and we just had to accept where we were.
“She travelled real smooth. She’s like a big colt and you are literally able to move horses on here. She’s a big tough girl and really loves her racing and stays that trip good.”
The final Flat race of season, the Listed QuinnBet Finale Stakes fittingly went to champion jockey Billy Lee on Willie Mullins’ Thread Of Gold.
The 2-1 favourite looked in a different league to his rivals, winning by three and a half lengths to give Lee a 99th winner of the campaign.
Assistant trainer David Casey said: “He had the form coming into it to be very competitive, and to win. His work had been very good during the week.
“Billy said he did it well and was delighted with him. He thinks he’ll be better on better ground, which was a bit surprising as I thought he’d handle the cut well.
“He ran really well in Leopardstown the last day, probably just didn’t fully get the run of the race.
“I think he might strengthen up over the winter a bit and hopefully he’ll be a lovely horse for next year, he might be able to step up a bit in grade as well.
“We’ll see what Willie wants to do next year but I’m sure if he wanted to go a little bit further it wouldn’t be an issue.”