Navan 26/4/09

[fintron]

5.00 Listed The listed Vintage Crop Stakes sees the seasonal reappearance of Yeats and Aiden O'Brien's powerful stayer is looking to land this race for the third season in a row. The eight year old is the oldest horse in the field but answered his critics - who suggested he could not win outside of the UK and Ire - with a win over Allegretto in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp on his final run last season and show he is still a class act. That took his tally of group wins to ten and we have a clear group class horse in a listed level race here. Of course, there could be a young gun lurking in the line up hoping to bring down the top staying horse of recent years but O'Brien's yard have started to come into form and I expect them to take the 29,295 euro prize here en route to further Group prizes in the months to come.

[Blair Boy]

Re: Navan 26/4/09 An unexpected result today with Yeats taking his usual route to Ascot finishing in 6th place although I think the ground being on the soft side being to blame as most his best results have been produced on faster ground. The layers will have been pleased with the result anyway that's for sure.