'I actually fancied him, he's a gorgeous horse' - White Birch beats Ballydoyle battalion in Ballysax

It was Champion Chase-winning trainer John Murphy who prevented a Ballydoyle clean sweep of the Classic trials at Leopardstown on Sunday as White Birch, the outsider of the field in the Group 3 PW McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes, swooped late under Shane Foley at 22-1. 

Murphy sent out Newmill to win the 2006 Champion Chase and more recently celebrated Irish Cesarewitch success with Brazos in 2018. Now the County Cork-based trainer could have a Classic contender in his Upton stable. 

You have to rewind all the way to Harzand in 2016 to find a Ballysax winner without an O'Brien involved and he went on to win the Derby. White Birch does not have an entry yet for Epsom but can still be added at Tuesday's second entry stage for £9,000, and it was hard not to be impressed with the way he wore down his five rivals on a punishing surface at Leopardstown. 

White Birch had won only a Dundalk maiden towards the end of November and was taking a giant leap in class, but Foley was not dumbfounded by the display.  

Asked how shocked he was, Foley replied: "It wasn't necessarily a surprise to me. I've ridden him in his work over the last couple of weeks and I've really liked him. He's a gorgeous horse. 

"I actually fancied him coming here and then I saw he was the outsider of the whole field. On his homework he was working like a very nice horse. I was riding him to run well and it all worked out.

"George [Murphy, assistant trainer] was worried about coming here and going that trip, but I think you could go a mile and a half with him. It was a proper race, they went a proper gallop, and it never let up.  

"I knew down around the bottom bend that I was getting to them and he actually picked up better than I expected, and I ended up getting there a little bit too soon. He really is a nice horse."

White Birch: does not hold an entry in the Derby but connections did not rule out supplementing himCredit: Patrick McCann

Serious Challenge set a serious pace from the start and, under Rory Cleary, he must have been half a dozen lengths clear leaving the back straight, but he began to curl up early in the home straight and the pack closed rapidly. 

At that stage, it looked as if Alexandroupolis, the odds-on favourite who had been nibbled at in the Derby market over the last week, would be the one to pick up the pieces. He tired in the conditions, however, wandered under pressure, and Ryan Moore was given a two-day ban for careless riding on him. 

It was left to White Birch and Up And Under, who sat last and second-last, to fight out the finish, and the grey son of Ulysses pulled out more close home to win by half a length. 

"He could be a very exciting horse. He doesn't have any Classic entries but he could get some yet! We’ll see how he comes out of this and make a plan from there," said assistant trainer Murphy. 

"He relaxed lovely early on and quickened really well. He got a good bump about a furlong down, but he’s a very honest horse and stayed lengthening the whole way to the line. We are delighted with that and he could be very good. He’s done what we always thought he could do."

This was not what Aidan O'Brien expected Alexandroupolis to do, though. The 4-5 market leader faded into third, but the master of Ballydoyle thought we would hear a lot more about the Galway maiden winner as the season progressed. He could return to Leopardstown for the Derrinstown Derby Trial next. 

O'Brien said: "He was very fresh early on and I think that took its toll on him at the business end. He had been working so well and everything had come so naturally to him at home that I'd say he needed the race more than the others."

This was White Birch's day and there could be plenty more big days to come.  

Read this next:

Never Ending Story 8-1 for the 1,000 Guineas as Aidan O'Brien mops up Classic trials 

Aidan O'Brien: 'He's definitely one to watch, you won't go too far wrong with him' 

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