Racing: Battling Boru carries trophy back to Ballydoyle

Brian Boru, called after the first king of all Ireland, gave the modern monarch of the training ranks, Aidan O'Brien, his second successive Racing Post Trophy and his fourth in six years at Doncaster yesterday. As last year, when High Chaparral beat Castle Gandolfo, it was a one-two for Ballydoyle, with Powerscourt taking the runner-up spot. Their stablemate, The Great Gatsby, finished fourth, with Sir Michael Stoute's Illustrator the interloper in third.

Like his namesake, an 11th-century warlord, Brian Boru had to overcome adversity to lead home the Irish army in a roughish race. Two furlongs from home in the soft-ground slog down the demanding straight mile on Town Moor, the colt was trapped behind Powerscourt as Balin's Sword started to struggle and Bahamian Dancer took station on their outside. But the last-named was not good enough to hold his position and once Kevin Darley was able to extricate Brian Boru, the 11-8 favourite, and balance him, the colt with the crooked white blaze lengthened his stride to win by a length and a quarter.

It was an action replay for Darley, who rode High Chaparral last year, and his fourth top-level race in five weeks, after Bollin Eric in the St Leger, Fraulein in the EP Taylor Stakes in Canada and Where Or When in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, in a golden autumn for the former champion. Brian Boru's performance in the final Group One race of the domestic season earned him the position as winter favourite for the Derby in most lists and Darley compared the bay favour-ably with his predecessor.

"He's potentially the same sort of horse," he said, "although I think High Chaparral was more clued-in at this stage. Aidan had told me beforehand that this one was still immature mentally, and not the sort to get bossy with or fall out with. So I gave him a pat down the neck in the paddock and we seemed to get on. Once I got the split, that was it. He just had a look when he got to the front, but one little flick with the whip and it was all over. He's a lovely stamp of a horse and this experience will have sent him in the right direction."

O'Brien was attending the Breeders' Cup but, despite all the excitement in Chicago last night, the best older horse in the world might reside in the southern hemisphere. Yesterday in Australia, the six-year-old Northerly won his second consecutive Cox Plate, the equivalent of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in that part of the world. Those who followed him in at Moonee Valley were no mugs: Defier, winner of three from five this term; the Godolphin challenger, Grandera; and the best mare on the planet, Sunline.

The race lived up to its billing as a vintage edition of the Group One contest. Sunline, the winner in 1999 and 2000 and second last year, went off in front, setting some fierce fractions, with Pat Payne settling Northerly in her slipstream. Payne pounced in the straight and kept enough in hand to repel Defier by a length, with Grandera closing rapidly from off the pace to run a long-neck third.

It was the Fred Kersley-trained Northerly's eighth Group One win and his second in a week, after the Caulfield Cup, as he became the first horse to complete that double since the exceptional Tobin Bronze in 1967.

Granderanow heads for Hong Kong's International meeting, and may return for another crack at the Cox Plate next year. But it was Sunline's swan-song; the seven-year-old New Zealand legend retires with honour as winner of 13 Group Ones.