Genius training or ideal ground - what lay behind Auguste Rodin's dramatic revival in Irish Champion Stakes?
It was the ground that won it. Auguste Rodin's victory in the Irish Champion Stakes was the prompt for a slew of adulation for Aidan O'Brien, now widely being lauded for turning the horse around after a dire effort in the King George.
Along with most others, I've been applying the 'genius' tag to O'Brien for a very long time but I'm not sure this horse's return to winning form is the absolute best example of the trainer's skills. Auguste Rodin is a big talent when conditions are right but can blow out completely if they don't suit; we've seen a lot of horses like that, representing a lot of different stables.
Musing on the King George, this column summarised Auguste Rodin's season as, "Derby-winning efforts on a sound surface and mystifying flops when there's juice underfoot". After a week of strong sun, Leopardstown's surface was pretty much ideal for him and produced a time ten seconds faster than last year's race.
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Published on inThe Cook Review
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