Major upset in Irish 2000 Guineas
It will take long term patrons of the Curragh some time to get used to the new layout of the enclosure. Many of their favourite vantage points are no longer there but when they discovered that the horses paraded anti-clockwise they nearly lost their stand-up and then when 25/1 chance Romanised landed the 2000 Guineas, the smelling salts were being passed around as they thought that they were having hallucinations.
Most racegoers were of the opinion that the Newmarket 2000 Guineas form was the best yardstick and as a consequence they sent Elarqam, who was just two lengths off the winner Saxon Warrior, in that race a warm favourite.
US Navy Flag, from the Aidan O'Brien yard, broke smartly and set the pace with Elarqam racing in his slip stream. However the latter began to tread water approaching the two furlong marker and dropped out of contention. While all this was happening, Shane Foley was biding his time aboard Romanised and when he produced him with a storming run well inside the final furlong, he quickly cut down US Navy Flag to win going away by two and a quarter lengths and give trainer Ken Condon his first Classic success.
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