Hurricane Lane gifts Charlie Appleby Golden Derby double at The Curragh
Jockey Frankie Dettori on Stradivarius after defeat in the Gold Cup on Ladies Day at the Royal Ascot horse racing meet, in Ascot, west of London on June 17, 2021.
Hurricane Lane (William Buick 4-1) administered the final blow in winning Dubai's Duty Free 1 million Euro, Irish Derby, for Charlie Appleby - a golden double after Adayar came good at Epsom.
Quite far away from breakaway leader Lone Eagle (Frankie Dettori 11-2), with still a couple of furlongs left, Hurricane Lane drew attention with his familiar blue Godolphin silks, gaining ground on an expansive long straight.
Hearing the roar of approximately 1,000 spectators lucky enough to be in attendance, was pulsating. An invaluable neck separated Hurricane from Lone Eagle at the line, with a further seven lengths back to Wordsworth (Seamie Heffernan 11-1), and Earlswood (Ben Coen 28-1).Charlie is juggling through some of the world’s richest races, ticking them off rather rapidly. Although the 1.4 miles was cracked in 2:33:8/10, it was quite slow considering normal conditions.
Mac Swiney and Van Gogh ran out of steam, but poor old High Definition (Ryan Moore 9-4), was hampered shortly after the start and then stumbled. He never got going again. In fact, the whole race was a bit shaky - horses were too tightly bunched behind the main two heroes.***Also at the Curragh, there was a vintage renewal of the Railway Stakes.
This anticipated contest was bagged by Go Bears Go (Rossa Ryan 2-1), who had a quick beginning, slumped, then found extra energy to defend himself from Castle Star (Chris Hayes 4-1).
Go Bears Go must have been highly thought of as David Loughnane stumped a late €10,000 supplementary fee. Masseto came third, but 15-8 favourite Dr Zempf could only manage fourth, due to squeezing.
