Last weekend in England at Newmarket the club closed off the group racing season with Champions’ Day and Coolmore’s Aidan O’Brien led home the quinella in the Group I Dewhurst Stakes.
Beethoven (ex Queen Titi by Sadler’s Wells) beat his stablemate Fencing Master (Oratorio ex Moonlight Dance by Alysheba) by a neck under Ryan Moore.  In claiming the famous juvenile event Beethoven gave Oratorio (Danehill ex Mahrah by Vaguely Noble) his first winner at the elite level and his trainer even more reasons to smile as he had bred him.
O’Brien told Coolmore, “He’s (Beethoven) very tough and has been progressing with every run even if his form doesn’t always read like that,”
“We’ve always thought a lot of him and Sue (Magnier) didn’t call him that name for no reason!
“Joseph (O’Brien) rode him the other day and said there was plenty in there and to put a visor on him to maybe sharpen him up a little bit, so that’s what we did. The first and second have been getting better and better and it’s great to have a 1-2 for Oratorio.
“It was a smart horse in second. He’d been working brilliantly and we thought he could run a big race.
“Beethoven is a possible for either the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile or Juvenile Turf and the advantage he has is his experience.”

During his career on the track Oratorio won at the highest level of competition on three occasions and to add to his appeal to breeders in Australia he is line-bred to the families of Northern Dancer and Alydar.
On the track, Oratorio has victories over Starcraft, Motivator, Alexander Goldrun, Azamour and Grey Swallow, some of the very best horses to have raced in Europe over the past few seasons.
O’Brien described Oratorio as a horse who had it all;  “He is an amazing horse. He has everything, speed, stamina and a big heart.”
Ridden by Kieren Fallon during his career,  he said of him after his win in the Group I Irish Champion Stakes;  “I had a lot of confidence in this horse”
“He has an electric turn of foot and really quickened up when I wanted him to.”
Motivator’s connections were adamant that the son of Montjeu was at his best at the Cox Plate distance of 2000m. And so he undoubtedly was. But he had the misfortune of running into Oratorio — first in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes and then in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, both races over 10 furlongs (2000m). Oratorio beat him both times, in the process establishing him as one of only four horses in the past 30 years to have won both of these races.
As a juvenile Oratorio won his maiden over 1200m at the Curragh; he then stepped up to stakes company at the same course and took out the Group 2 Anglesey Stakes. Stepping up a notch again at The Curragh, Oratorio won the Group 2 Futurity Stakes (1400m) by two lengths. He then capped off his juvenile year with victory in the Group I Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (1400m) at Longchamp in France.
Oratorio also recorded two seconds at the elite level in his juvenile year in the Group I Phoenix Stakes (1200m) and the Dewhurst Stakes (1400m) at Newmarket.
In his classic year, Oratorio finished second in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas (1600m) at the Curragh and third in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes (1600m) at York. He capped off his classic year with wins in the Group 1 Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes.
Oratorio’s pedigree is full of black type and is also one that doubles up on two of the greatest female lines in thoroughbred racing and breeding history - the female lines of Northern Dancer and Alydar.
Oratorio stands his fourth season at Coolmore’s beautiful property in the Hunter Valley and his fee is $22,000 (inc gst).

Tags: Coolmore, Group I
Permalink| Oct 19, 2009

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