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Colt hands Authorized with his sixth Group 1 winner
Santiago (3 c ex Wadyhatta by Cape Cross) continued Aidan O’Brien’s stranglehold on the Irish Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f) as he showed enormous heart to win the Classic at the Curragh on Saturday and in the process became the sixth Group 1 winner for Authorized (Montjeu) and 14th win in the race for the master of Ballydoyle.
The three-year-old colt was last seen landing the Queen’s Vase (Gr 2, 1m6f) at Royal Ascot only eight days ago, but he showed his strong constitution to repel the advances his stablemate Tiger Moth (Galileo), eventually beating him by a head with another five lengths back to Dawn Patrol (Galileo) in third, while Order Of Australia came home in fourth to seal a 1-2-3-4 for O’Brien.
O’Brien, who first won the race in 1997 with Bay King (Danehill), was impressed with the winner
"We’re delighted with that," he said after the race that was run in a heavy rain shower and with a strong tailwind.
“He's a lovely staying type of horse and they went an honest gallop. We thought he might be a St Leger horse and be one to look forward to as a Cup horse next year, and the horses behind him are still babies, so they're there to look forward to as well.”
Bred by Lynch Bages, Santiago is out of the two-time winning Cape Cross (Green Desert) mare Wadyhatta who is a half-sister to five winners including the stakes placed Motamarris (Le Havre), who ran third in the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr 1, 2100m).
His third dam Al Ishq (Nureyev) produced nine winners including dual Group 1 winner and successful sire Tamayuz (Nayef) as well as the stakes-placed pair Nuqoosh (Machiavellian) and Ettisaal (Dubawi).
Authorized has sired 33 stakes winners in total and his top-flight winners include Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Hartnell who also won The BMW (Gr 1, 2400m), Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) and CF Orr (Gr 1, 1400m).
Authorized shuttled to Australia for four seasons between 2009 and 2012 and he was sold to the Turkish Jockey Club last year, having previously stood at Haras du Logis.