Rizeena swoops to give Brittain Moyglare glory

Jockey Doyle follows Kingman success with Irish Group One victory for veteran trainer

Rizeena (yellow silks) wins the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh (PA)

Kingman may have convinced his connections grudgingly to elevate their public opinion of him with a smooth success on Saturday, but Clive Brittain took little persuading to sing the praises of his Moyglare Stud Stakes winner after Rizeena had put her main rivals Kiyoshi and Tapestry firmly in their place at the Curragh on Sunday.

“I came here doubly confident,” Brittain said after the Group One contest. “I knew they’d go a good pace and credit to them, there were some good fillies in the race, but we’re exceptionally good. I’ve trained some good fillies with Sayyedati, User Friendly and Pebbles, of course, and she may not be that far behind them. We’ll look at the Cheveley Park Stakes [at Newmarket on 28 September] and there is also the Prix Marcel Boussac [at Longchamp on 6 October] and the Fillies’ Mile [at Newmarket on 27 September].”

Although Rizeena took the seven-furlong contest by just a head from Kiyoshi, with Tapestry three-quarters of a length away in third, her rivals had no answer to the momentum with which she struck the front under James Doyle, fresh from his success on Kingman. Kiyoshi again hung alarmingly in the closing stages, as she had when winning at Royal Ascot, and was demoted to third, with her jockey, Jamie Spencer, banned for four days for careless riding.

Tapestry’s trainer, Aidan O’Brien, produced a smart newcomer in Dazzling, a full-sister to the 2011 Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Roderic O’Connor, to win the opening maiden at the Curragh. The Fillies’ Mile entry was described by O’Brien as “still very green but you’d have to be delighted the way she did it. We could step up anywhere now with her. She’s a big strong powerful filly – a big mile-and-a-half type.”

O’Brien’s Great White Eagle maintained his unbeaten record in the other two-year-old race on the card, the six-furlong Group Three Round Tower Stakes, and is now pressing his stablemate War Command for second favouritism, at around 10-1, in the 2,000 Guineas market, which Kingman heads at 5-1.

O’Brien said: “He could step up anywhere now. It’s a choice of the National Stakes or the Middle Park and all those types of races. What’s good about this horse is he has great pace and travels very strongly. We didn’t ask him to come forward from his last race, we just let him coast into this. Next time we’ll ask him to come forward a bit. You couldn’t see him getting any further than a mile as he travels very strongly.”

Teddy Grimthorpe, spokesman for Team Kingman, nominated the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket next month as the likeliest target after the colt had won the Group Three Solario Stakes at Sandown. “When he was asked to quicken he quickened really nicely,” Grimthorpe said. “I would think a mile, mile and a quarter would be the limit of him next year.”