Te Akau Ireland Preview
23 April, 2017
Te Akau lines up one starter in Ireland on Monday (NZ time) -
Navan: Navan is a left handed track extending 1 mile to 4 furlongs with a straight sprint track of nearly 6 furlongs. The "home" straight is 3.5 furlongs with a steady uphill finish from 2 furlongs out.
As on Saturday 22 April the conditions were: fine and "good-good to yileding in parts".
3.25 a.m. (NZ time) R5 3 Torcedor (5g Fastnet Rock - Magnolia Lane) - Colm O'Donoghue; very impressive when resuming with a last start win a fortnight ago at Leopardstown and has been supplemented for this Group 3 race where he faces two runners he defeated last outing. The favourite Order of St George will be hard to beat but Torcedor's new trainer Jessica Harrington is happy with her charge - Harrington fresh from her Cheltenham Gold Cup victory, a superb horsewoman. Already a Listed winner, Torcedor has drawn well and will be competitive in a race won last year by Bondi Beach, familiar to racegoers in this part of the world through his Melbourne exploits. Interestingly Yeats won this race in 2007 and 2008 - Torcedor's dam is a full sister to that champion.
The Irish racing site assessed the race as follows:
Verdict
The last 11 renewals of this event have gone to a horse either trained by Aidan O'Brien (six wins), John Oxx (three wins) or Demrot Weld (two wins) and that sequence could well continue today. The one to beat on all known form is clearly ORDER OF ST GEORGE, who was a beaten odds-on favourite in the Irish St Leger and the British Champions Long Distance Cup late last year. That said, in between those efforts the Ascot Gold Cup winner finished third to Found and Highland Reel in the Arc at Chantilly. Forgotten Rules is clearly not the horse he once promised to be but he is more than capable of going well at this level. However, he has plenty of ground to find with Torcedor based on their meeting at Leopardstown earlier in the month. Red Stars and Twilight Payment are other notable participants.
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