Criterium international (Group 1)

AIDAN himself was in attendance on Sunday, but the trip home may have been a long one after Hermosa proved no match for Godolphin’s Royal Meeting in the Criterium International and Flag Of Honour compromised both his chance and that of another Godolphin hope, Brundtland, when baffled by the all-weather crossing at the bottom of the home straight in the Prix Royal-Oak.

Just 16 days after chasing home Iridessa in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket, Hermosa again found one too good, this time by a margin of three-quarters of a length.

Kessaar cut out a strong pace and Ryan Moore was hard at work aboard Hermosa rounding the final turn.

The daughter of Galileo responded well to pressure, hitting the front at the quarter-mile pole, but had no answer when Royal Meeting came past on the wide outside early in the final furlong.

A homebred son of Invincible Spirit, the winner was making a big jump in class having landed a Yarmouth maiden on his solitary previous start.

He was continuing a fine recent run for trainer Saeed bin Suroor who landed the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere three weeks earlier with a very similar sort, Royal Marine, and had subsequently struck twice in big races ‘Down Under’.s

Hugh Anderson, Managing Director of Godolphin, said: “I’m delighted for the entire team as it’s been the best year I can remember. This makes it 27 Group 1 wins and we’ve still got the Breeders’ Cup and the Melbourne Cup to come.

“Royal Meeting will now go to Dubai where we can start planning for next year.”

O’Brien said of the runner-up: “Hermosa ran a very good race and she’ll get a mile and further next year, when we will have both the Guineas and Oaks in mind.”

Flag Of Honour spooked at crossing.

Prix Royal-Oak (Group 1)

WITH the ground no worse than ‘good to soft’, O’Brien made the bold decision to allow his Irish St Leger hero, Flag Of Honour, to contest the French equivalent just eight days after toiling in the Champions Day mud at Ascot. This time it was the short section of all-weather that needs to be crossed little more than half a mile into the Royal-Oak’s 15 furlongs that proved his undoing The front-running Flag Of Honour took aversion to it, virtually stopped, and though he got going again quickly enough, the incident handed the initiative to the other pace angle in the race, Holdthasigreen, one that he was never to relinquish. Flag Of Honour did keep on well up the home straight a second time and would have been beaten less than the eventual length and a quarter margin if he had been allowed a clear passage up the inside rail. “He’s probably never seen an intersection like that before and it spooked him,” O’Brien admitted. Without headgear for the first time in over two and a half years, being able to make the running was ideal for Holdthasigreen as his jockey, Tony Piccone, felt he had been too strong up until this point. This was a fairytale success for his owner-breeder, Claude Le Lay, who revealed: “Holdthasigreen was a very difficult horse in his younger days and we’ve had to be very patient with him. Once he feels that you are in love with him, he’ll give you everything!”