Order of St George (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is set to start the shortest-priced favourite of the Irish Champions weekend after scaring off the opposition in Sunday's G1 Palmerstown House Estate Irish St Leger at The Curragh.
So impressive when scoring by 11 lengths here 12 months ago, the subsequent G1 Ascot Gold Cup hero demonstrated his current wellbeing by extending his sequence in the G3 Irish St Leger Trial over this course and distance three weeks ago.
“He's matured great and we've been very happy with him this year,” Aidan O'Brien said. “We were delighted with his start-back run the other day and Seamus [Heffernan] is very happy with him in his work. He was a big, angular two-year-old, he was a bit more furnished last year and he's properly furnished this year. He's starting to relax, he's a horse with a lot of nervous energy but he's enjoying it we think. He handles soft ground very well, but goes on fast ground as well. He's an unusual type of horse, really.”
Next best on ratings is last year's G1 Gold Cup hero Trip To Paris (Ire) (Champs Elysees {GB}), who was one place behind Wicklow Brave (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}) when fourth in the G2 Lonsdale Cup over an extended two-mile trip at York last time Aug. 19.
Trainer Ed Dunlop commented, “A lot of thought went into swerving [the] Doncaster [Cup] for this and we're putting a pair of blinkers back on him. If we'd run at Doncaster over two and a quarter miles, we wouldn't have used them but he's been second in a Caulfield Cup and we hope to use our turn of foot. I just felt he ran a little lazily in the Lonsdale, but he's been working very well of late. We're under no illusions, Order of St George is a fantastic horse and it will be a tough task, but he's going there in good form.”
Wicklow Brave was third in this last year and his consistency should see him make a place again.
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