Benvenuto Cellini rebounds to win Irish Derby at the Curragh

Benvenuto Cellini turned a ruined Derby day into a clean Classic win at the Curragh, beating stablemate Ronan Whelan by 1 3/4 lengths in the Irish Derby and leaving Pierre Bonnard another neck behind in third. In a race that carried the €1.25 million purse and the usual Ballydoyle weight, Aidan O’Brien saddled the first three finishers and kept his grip on a division he continues to dominate.

The market had already pointed to the colt. Benvenuto Cellini went off the 13/8 favorite in the 16:35 renewal, with eight declared runners over 1m4f on the Curragh card, and Ryan Moore again took the ride after standing by him through the Epsom fallout. This was not just a neater trip than last time. It was a reset, one that gave the son of Frankel the chance to run from the break instead of trying to recover from a race that had already gone wrong.

At Epsom, the stewards ruled that Benvenuto Cellini had not started on equal terms after his left-hind leg was caught on the running boards, and he was declared a non-runner after the inquiry. The Derby was run on soft ground there, which only sharpened the contrast with the Curragh, where the going was good and the race unfolded in a way that suited a colt with a longer stride and more time to settle. The form line also tells its own story: he had trailed Christmas Day by 28 lengths in England, then flipped the script in Ireland with a performance that looked controlled rather than desperate.

That matters because it moves Benvenuto Cellini out of the unlucky file and into the top tier of this classic crop. O’Brien’s 18th Irish Derby victory and ninth 1-2-3 finish in the race underline the stable’s reach, and the result came on the same summer that he swept the French Derby at Chantilly. The Curragh, home to Ireland’s five Classics and the Irish Derby since 1866, provided the stage for a colt who now looks less like a one-race story and more like a horse with bigger targets ahead. O’Brien has already said the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland is a possible destination this fall.