Racing
Sons And Lovers enters Cup picture
Ballyroan Stakes win qualifies Joseph O’Brien gelding for Melbourne Cup.
Sons And Lovers took a giant step towards a trip to Melbourne for this year's Spring Carnival after a win in Ireland overnight Thursday, Australian time.
The Joseph O'Brien-trained gelding was a tenacious winner of the Ballyroan Stakes (2414m) at Leopardstown.
The son of Study Of Man, a Northern Hemisphere four-year-old, passed the Melbourne Cup ballot with the Group 3 win, which O'Brien said made a trip south a 'legitimate possibility'.
"Yeah, it absolutely could be," O'Brien, a two-time winner of the Melbourne Cup, said.
"He meets the qualifications now being a Group winner, he had to get placed today to do that (qualify), and as well as Melbourne there's a number of international races that would potentially suit him through the winter.
"I'd say that is a legitimate possibility."
Sons And Lovers is raced by the same syndicate that owns the Willie Mullins-trained Absurde, who has finished seventh and fifth in the past two Melbourne Cups.
The Ballyroan Stakes has long been used as a Melbourne Cup lead-up, won by regular visitor Vinnie Roe in 2002 and 2003, while Vauban used it to qualify for the 2023 edition.
Sons And Lovers defeated last year's winner, and one-time Melbourne Cup aspirant, Crystal Black by half-a-length with Siege Of Troy the same margin away third.
It was his second win from 12 starts and followed a fifth placing, beaten two lengths, in the Listed Wolferton Stakes (2011m) at Royal Ascot.
Sons And Lovers ran fourth in the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes (2011m) the start prior with his only other run this year a third placing in the Group 3 Alleged Stakes (2011m) won by stablemate and fellow Caulfield Cup entry Galen. Second in the Alleged Stakes was Jan Brueghel.
"He's a nice horse and he's had a couple of very good runs this year," O'Brien said of Sons And Lovers.
"He ran very well at Ascot, the race didn't set up perfectly firm and I think as he goes up and distance, we'll see some more progression hopefully."
Sons And Lovers was among Caulfield Cup entries when they closed earlier this week and is likely to be among Melbourne Cup nominations when they close on September 2 with a decision on a start to be made later that month.
"We'll see how he comes home from today, but my immediate thought would be to come back here Champions weekend for the mile-and-a-half, the Kilternan Stakes," O'Brien said.
"That would be a logical stepping stone from here, and then we could look at travelling after that."
The Group 3 Kilternan Stakes (2414m) will be run on September 13.
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