Swallow Set For Super Summer

Grey Swallow put down an early marker for top older horse honours as he shot down Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe winner Bago in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh on Sunday.

The Dermot Weld-trained four-year-old, winner of last year´s Irish Derby, led a furlong out in the hands of birthday boy Pat Smullen and was able to keep the French star at bay by three-quarters of a length.

Grey Swallow is 6-1 from 10-1 with Coral for the King George and Weld said: 'He´s brave and he´s tough, that´s why I told Pat to go on halfway down the straight.

'He tired a little bit in the last 100 yards and he will obviously come on for this run so I´d say we have a lot to look forward to.

'We´ll have a look at York and of course there is also the King George and in the second part of the year we will decide between an American and a European campaign.

'It was a smashing Group One and a great performance.'

Bago appeared to find the rain-softened conditions against him as he lost his place early in the home straight before rallying to get closest to the winner.

But the unlucky horse in the race was probably fourth-home Azamour who got no room in scrimmaging in the final stages, an incident for which the riders of the winner and runner-up were cautioned by the stewards.

The two Aidan O´Brien-trained runners Solskjaer and Ace took the six-strong field along in the early stages of the extended 10-furlong contest.

Kieren Fallon drove Ace into the lead a quarter of a mile out but the pack closed in and it was Grey Swallow who kicked on over a furlong from home.

Bago, sent off the 9-10 favourite, had to be hard ridden to put in a challenge and despite the benefit of a previous run he could not quite get to the 13-2 winner, while Ace stuck on for third.

Trainer Jonathan Pease said: 'He just didn´t quite pick up on the ground ? he got himself into a hole.

'He always seems to lose a bit of ground and hit a flat spot when the pace quickens. But he should improve again for this and I think we will go straight for the King George rather than go to Royal Ascot at York.

'It´s disappointing to lose but we´re still very much in the game for races like the Arc and the King George (which will be run at Newbury this year due to the redevelopment of Ascot).'

On the other side of the winner´s enclosure John Oxx, trainer of Azamour, was in two minds about watching the replay that was being shown on the big screen.

'Maybe I ought to wait a couple of days before I put myself through it,' he said.

'You could see from a long way out that he wasn´t going to get a run and it´s very frustrating. I think we would have won - we have beaten Grey Swallow three times before today.

'Mick (Kinane) was delighted with the horse. He just felt he should have won the race but there you are and at least it should set him up for the Prince of Wales´s Stakes which will be his next target.'

Second-season trainer David Flood gained an unexpected first Group-race success as he returned to his native Ireland to take the Airlie Stud Gallinule Stakes with 8-1 chance Im Spartacus.

In the run-up to the Group Three contest, all the talk was of 8-11 favourite Scorpion and whether O´Brien´s colt could enter the reckoning for the Vodafone Derby in less than a fortnight´s time by maintaining his unbeaten sequence.

But in yet another trial that posed more questions than provided answers, Scorpion failed to convince despite going down by just a short-head in a thrilling finish with Mister Genepi the same distance back in third.

Ehsan was another horse to lose his 100 per cent record as he faded out of contention in the final furlong but he did at least serve to make the race a thorough test as he cut out a serious gallop in the early stages.

Scorpion was arguably unlucky to lose out, having had to be switched off the rails.

But with Im Spartacus having long since been a gelding - and therefore ineligible to take part in the Derby - the race failed to cause much of a shake-up in the betting for the blue riband.

But nothing was going to prevent Flood from celebrating a success which proved a pointer to the chances of O´Brien´s Gypsy King, whom Im Spartacus went down to by a short-head in the Dee Stakes at Chester earlier in the month.

Never short of a word or two, Flood beamed: 'He´s improving from race to race. You can´t see it to look at him but he has got such a confidence that you have to treat him with the utmost respect.

'He´s a gelding so we can´t run him in the Vodafone Derby but we´ll look at all the best races around the world for him as he´s on a roll and I don´t think he´s stopped improving.

'I wish I´d had him as a yearling as he might not be a gelding now but he only cost about 20,000 guineas and he has done us proud.'

Mister Genepi´s trainer Willie Muir was pleased with his charge´s performance and was looking towards a possible tilt at the French Derby.

For just his second race, it represented a solid performance by Scorpion and one which the colt can build on in the future.

Coral trimmed him to 10-1 from 12-1 for the Derby and pushed Ehsan out to 25-1, while VC Bet cut Scorpion to 12-1 from 16s and also took Ehsan out of the betting.

? PA Sport