Atzeni eclipsed by Yorkshire’s great Gatsby

Favourite Kingston Hill prevailed on Doncaster’s Town Moor, giving in-form jockey Andrea Atzeni a first Classic success.

However, Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan enjoyed the biggest win yet of his burgeoning career as his champion colt – already the winner of the Betfred Dante Stakes and French Derby – was the beneficiary of a virtuoso ride by Ryan Moore.

The win reversed the form of York’s Juddmonte International last month where The Grey Gatsby had chased home Australia whose defeat on Saturday was not helped by a below-par ride by Joseph O’Brien who took a surprisingly wide course while Moore hugged the inner before getting up on the line to win by a neck.

“The race set up nice for him and he really tries hard,” said the winning rider, now widely regarded as the best Flat jockey in the world and who had flown to Leopardstown after his mount Kings Fete was unplaced in Doncaster’s big race.

As for the victorious trainer, he hopes the best is still to come from his stable star.

“He’ll stay in training next year and will get stronger and better,” said a confident Ryan.

Unlike Kingston Hill who will attempt to complete the St Leger and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe double next month, The Grey Gatsby will bypass Europe’s blue riband race and could line up in the Champion Stakes at Ascot next month for a potential ‘decider’ with Australia.

The Grey Gatsby’s victory was the catalyst of a remarkable run of success for Yorkshire horses on the inaugural Irish Champions Weekend – Bow Creek took the Group Two mile for Middleham’s Mark Johnston; Malton trainer Brian Ellison’s Barazweez landed the seven-mile handicap; The Yorkshire Post’s racing columnist Danny Tudhope prevailed on Watchable in the six-furlong sprint for his boss David O’Meara and Midterm Break took the 29-runner sales race for Thirsk trainer David Barron in a Yorkshire one-two with Karl Burke’s Explosive Lady second.

These successes were indicative of Yorkshire racing’s resurgence in recent years – and how many of the county’s top Flat yards have the horsepower, as well as the training and riding expertise, to match Newmarket and Lambourn’s most successful stables?

This is helped by the growing prestige of this county’s top racing festivals at York and also Doncaster which welcomed a record crowd of 61,909 people to the four-day St Leger meeting – an encouraging increase of 1,000 spectators on last year.

They watched enthralled as the 9-4 favourite Kingston Hill, virtually last in the home straight, swept past the field to deny Romsdal and Snow Sky.

Though Kingston Hill did veer across the eventual second and third, the stewards deemed the interference to be accidental.

This compelling spectacle can only help Doncaster with its quest to persuade Ladbrokes to continue its sponsorship of the world’s oldest Classic – the bookmaker, which has worked tirelessly over the past decade to restore the St Leger’s reputation, is still unhappy that it was not afforded the courtesy of being informed about the race clashing with the newly-established Irish Champions Weekend.

The victory completed a year to cherish for 23-year-old Atzeni who came to prominence when partnering Kingston Hill to victory in last October’s Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, with the aforementioned The Grey Gatsby amongst the also-rans.

The Sardinian-born jockey, Qatar Racing’s new jockey, was in a slight state of bewilderment when he partnered Mount Logan to victory in the subsequent race – he left his goggles in the weighing room. For good measure, he won yesterday’s Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes on Cursory Glance.

“There’s no point looking back,” said Atzeni. “It’s great – beyond words. The horse, he gave me my first Group One in England, and then my first Classic.

“I can’t remember passing the line. I dropped him out the back because he was the best horse in the race.

“Not many people know this, but I went out with friends for a celebration after finishing second to Australia in the Epsom Derby on Kingston Hill. For me, it was a winner – and I knew he would be a Leger horse.”

It was a first Classic win for Newmarket trainer Roger Varian who had considered withdrawing Kingston Hill because of the drying conditions. That he trusted Atzeni’s judgement is indicative of the justifiable faith that trainers have in the Italian. It also vindicated clerk of the course Roderick Duncan’s decision not to water the track.

Just the fourth grey to win the St Leger since the war, the horse derives its name from a hill that the champion’s cycling-mad owner Paul Smith pedals up each day.

In a bittersweet irony, Smith’s father Derrick is amongst the co-owners of the previously invincible Australia.