Ex-Irish trained Joshua Tree makes history

Joshua Tree made history in Canada last night when winning his third Pattison Canadian International at Woodbine.

The six year-old entire gained his first win in the Group One for Aidan O'Brien in 2010 before gaining the second of his wins for Marco Botti in 2012, having finished second in 2011.

Now with Ed Dunlop, the son of Montjeu had failed to put his head in front in five starts in 2013 but returned to his best under a patient ride from Ryan Moore.

The pair took up the running at the top of the straight and quickly opened up a three length lead but he had to dig deep to repel the late challenge of Hyper who was still three parts of a length down at the line with German challenger Seismos in third.

"He seems to be at home here," Andrew Stringer, assistant trainer for Dunlop said. "He drank well, ate well and trained well. He settled down. Everything was perfect preparation for him.

"We had a bit of rain which helped. I just can't believe it that he's won three Group 1 races here for three different trainers with three different training methods. It just goes to show you how tough and genuine this horse is."

"He started a little slow. I was in a good position and quite happy to let (Stormy Len) take the lead," added Moore, whose best previous International finish was a second aboard Ask, a nose behind Cloudy's Knight in 2007.

"I didn't want to get into the race too early, so I let Mike (Smith, jockey of Slumber) go and I thought, 'He stays so well, I'll get a good run up the inside and kick home.' I went a little sooner than I would have liked ideally but somehow I knew he'd stay better and outfight most of them."

A delighted trainer said: "I've only had the horse this year and many people are part of his story. I'm delighted to have played a small part.

"To go out there four times, winning three and finishing second once, is an amazing achievement for the horse and well done to his owners and everyone concerned with him.

"He's in the Japan Cup and the Hong Kong Vase, but we'll get him home, talk to the owners and go from there. The Canadian International has obviously been a big part of his plans for this year and it's great that it came off."