If ever a horse was aptly named it is Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes winner Live In The Dream, who propelled trainer Adam West and jockey Sean Kirrane into the limelight at York.
West is far from one of the smallest trainers around with around 45 horses – but he is certainly not one of the biggest, either.
For Kirrane, though, based in the north of England and who principally rides for Tim Easterby, he will be hoping this is the success that takes his career to the next level.
Just like former champion Paul Hanagan, who retired on Friday, the 22-year-old is from a non-racing background. But he certainly had some connections as his uncle managed to get him his first job in racing with none other than the all-conquering Willie Mullins.
“I’ve got no background in racing. I lived about a 10-minute walk from Leopardstown where I’m from in Dublin. My parents took me there as a child and that is where my interest came from,” said Kirrane.
“I had lessons on ponies, but my first opportunity to ride out was at Willie Mullins’ when I was 15. I took an apprentice licence out with Johnny Levins on the Curragh when I was 17 or 18 and still at school and that was when I realised it was what I wanted to do after my first couple of winners.
“It was a chance contact through my uncle how I got to Willie’s, he knew someone there who got me the job and that was where I learned to ride a racehorse, that was the very start of it and it’s the old cliche, I got bitten by the bug there.”
As with so many young jockeys starting out in Ireland, they become attracted to the sheer volume of racing in the UK which opens up so many more opportunities.
He went on: “I had a conversation with my boss Johnny Levins as he had about 25 horses, but he had a stable jockey and I was a 10lb claimer at the time. He thought when I finished at school there’d be more opportunities for me in England with more racing.
“I came over and the rest is history.”
That only tells half the story of how he came to pick up the ride on what is now one of the fastest horses in Europe.
“My association with Adam is strange I suppose, a northern-based jockey riding for a trainer from Epsom,” said Kirrane.
“I was riding down south one day and stayed over as I had a ride at Goodwood the next day so I rang Adam on the off chance he needed someone to ride out.
“I went in and rode two lots and the first horse he put me on won three or four on the bounce and the association has grown from there.
“I rode this lad a couple of years ago, it went well and then I got back on him earlier this year. Let’s not beat around the bush, he probably had lots of opportunities to get a top jockey on but he stayed loyal to me, despite my inexperience, and I’ll be forever grateful.”
Quite often the Nunthorpe, more than any other top sprint, is simply won by the fastest horse.
While that may sound a quite simplistic thing to say, York’s flat five furlongs seems to lend itself to out-and-out speedsters. Think of Sharpo, Lochsong, Dayjur, Oasis Dream, Mecca’s Angel and Battaash.
Not many would have argued had you said Live In The Dream would be leading at halfway, as he showed great pace in the Palace House at Newmarket earlier this year, but his 28-1 starting price showed not many thought he would hang on.
“It’s a surreal feeling and it hasn’t really sunk in yet, it just feels like winning another race at the moment,” said Kirrane.
“The feeling in the last 60 yards when I could hear the cracks of the whips behind me but I knew I wasn’t going to get caught was like nothing I’ve ever felt before.
“A massive amount of credit goes to the horse, he’s really stepped up this year and it’s been an incredible journey for all of us.
“Adam has produced this horse brilliantly in top form today. He needed the run out in France last time in a Listed race as he’d had a month off. It brought him forward perfectly.
“Every time you go out on him you quietly fancy him as he is so effective over a fast five and York can play into the hands of front runners on this ground.
“It’s no secret how we ride him. We make lengths out of the gate and ride him aggressively, but he has a turn of foot as well. We try to take them off their feet in the closing stages, but today I was able to keep him on the bridle longer than I ever have as nothing ever came to me at the furlong pole. When I took him off it he found another gear again. What a performance.
“It’s lovely fast ground here today and he just skips across it, he’s amazing and is obviously a seriously talented animal.”
Victory in the Nunthorpe has earned Live In The Dream an automatic spot at the Breeders’ Cup – and Kirrane feels he will be perfectly suited to American sprinting.
“Adam is talking about America. I’d probably have to get in the sauna to lose a couple of pounds to ride him over there, but that would really suit him as he’s won around Chester and won at Lingfield. He was obviously good here today, but he’s better round a bend,” he said.
“If they go out there off the back of this he’d be seriously competitive.”
Ghostwriter gallop sparking Cox’s Classic dream
Clive Cox has been buoyed by a racecourse gallop ahead of Ghostwriter’s Qipco 2000 Guineas bid, confident his smart Newmarket form can prove a positive in the opening Classic of the season.
The son of Invincible Spirit was unbeaten throughout his two-year-old season and finished 2023 with a statement victory on the Rowley Mile in the Royal Lodge Stakes.
With that experience under the colt’s belt, Cox was happy to forego an early-season trial in favour of a pipe-opener at Kempton, with Ghostwriter – a general 14-1 shot to claim the scalp of Aidan O’Brien’s odds-on favourite City Of Troy on May 4 – reported to have thrived over the winter.
“I’m very happy with Ghostwriter and he has his Newmarket course form,” explained Cox.
“I’m very pleased he has done exceptionally well over the winter and we will be going there with a racecourse gallop under his belt. He’s done very well and that is why he hasn’t run in a trial.
“He’s been to Kempton and he’s a very athletic, clean-winded horse who has done well over the winter and we think that will have benefitted him far more than racing on testing ground, with his previous experience at Newmarket hopefully holding him in good stead.”
Another star juvenile for the Beechdown Stables team last season was the Kennet Valley-owned Dragon Leader, who suffered defeat just the once in five starts in 2023 as he proved a real money-spinner for connections.
Big victories at York and Redcar sandwiched a near miss in a valuable Doncaster event and Cox is eyeing stepping the son of El Kabeir up in trip this term when ground conditions allow him to return to action.
“He was a very productive runner last year earning over £300,000 in prize-money,” continued Cox.
“I’m pleased to say he’s wintered well, but he’s definitely better with a dry surface and we wouldn’t be making any concrete plans at the minute. When the ground gets a little bit quicker you will see him.
“Last year he was looking like seven furlongs would help him and I would be very hopeful he will get a mile. We kept him at six last year simply because he was so well qualified for those races. Six and a half was no problem for him at Doncaster though in the Weatherbys race.”
‘Mixed emotions’ for connections of Surrey Quest after epic Scottish National
Connections of Surrey Quest may have suffered agony at Ayr in the Coral Scottish Grand National, but could have bigger and better days on the horizon, with next year’s Grand National now entering calculations.
After four miles of action, Toby Lawes’ progressive seven-year-old was left to fight out a thrilling finish to the Ayr feature with Willie Mullins’ Macdermott, with the trainers’ title-chasing Irishman’s runner coming out on top after not only a titanic battle to the line but an excruciating wait while the judge deliberated over the result.
A standard-bearer over jumps for the Surrey Racing syndicate, Surrey Quest’s owners headed to Ayr full of confidence in their Kevin Brogan-ridden 20-1 shot after some promising results this season.
And despite being left with “mixed emotions” following the nose reversal at the hands of the Danny Mullins-ridden winner, they can take comfort that their charge has continued on the upward curve that has already seen him strike twice in his four starts this term.
“We’ve got mixed emotions and we thought the horse was in absolute brilliant shape heading up there,” said Clive Clive Hadingham, co-founder of Surrey Racing with Steve Grubb.
“Statistically we might have needed the run, but other than that everything went to plan and Toby was very meticulous in his preparations. He came here in great shape and everything went to plan, we just lost out on the nod.
“Winning is everything in this business and coming second, not matter how close, it feels like we came nowhere. We’d have been happy with a top-seven finish to be honest so we have to be proud. Kevin and Toby have done a fantastic job with this horse.
“We know he is a good horse and we wouldn’t have come up here if we didn’t think we had a chance. Surrey Racing as a company doesn’t go to races we don’t think we have a chance in and we’re just so proud of the run – we honestly thought at the line we had done it.
“Willie Mullins has so much ammunition and it’s just unfortunate we have come up against one of his and I guess the funny thing is if he wasn’t going for the championship he might not have been here today.”
Surrey Quest holds an entry for the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown on the final day of the jumps season, but his exertions north of the border make it unlikely he will try to replicate what Kitty’s Light’s achieved 12 months ago and make a rapid reappearance.
Instead sights are fully turned to Liverpool and the famous Grand National fences where Surrey Quest could take in December’s Becher Chase ahead a crack at the big one itself in 12 months’ time.
Hadingham continued: “It’s just mixed emotions, we’re so proud of him and we’ve had a super time up here in Ayr. I guess now we know we’re going to go on to bigger and better things with him.
“We might have a look at the Grand National now and we might look at coming back to Ayr again. He’s such an economical jumper that now the National has changed a bit and the fences are slightly lower, that is something we can look at.
“There’s so many big races next year he can go for and the Becher is one we will look at and we’ll take it from there.”
Arrest expected to make his mark as a four-year-old
Kieran Shoemark is relishing stepping into the boots of Frankie Dettori aboard Arrest, as the St Leger runner-up makes his return in the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes at Newbury.
Arrest played a key role in Dettori’s UK swansong last season and was a beaten favourite for the Italian’s final Derby ride at Epsom, before just failing to send the 53-year-old off in a blaze of Classic glory when second to Continuous at Doncaster in September.
Shoemark was three places behind Arrest with Gregory on Town Moor, but having taken the reins aboard many of John and Thady Gosden’s star Clarehaven inmates since the relocation of Dettori to California, he will get the leg-up aboard Arrest for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
The 28-year-old hopes the soft-ground loving colt can build on his positive finish to last season and feels there is plenty of improvement to be seen during his four-year-old campaign.
“He’s obviously a big horse and hopefully he’s going to improve with age,” said Shoemark.
“Hopefully the ground is not going to dry out too much at Newbury and we know he wants soft ground.
“His run in the Leger was brilliant – the ground went against me on Gregory, but he enjoyed it. He’s a proper mile-and-a-half horse, not short of speed by all means, and the softer the better for him.
“He’s a big, strapping horse and I honestly believe he will get better with age. He’s entitled to, so there will be plenty to look forward to for the year ahead.”
As well as winning the Chester Vase, Arrest’s other victory last term came at Newbury in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and joint-trainer Thady Gosden is confident the race more commonly known as the John Porter is the ideal spot to kick-start the son of Frankel’s season.
“He’s a very talented horse, he ran great last year and was second in a Classic,” he said.
“He’s developed very well over the winter and is a horse of great size and quality and he’s really filled into his frame and has been really pleasing leading into this race.
“He doesn’t mind getting his toe in at all and the track and trip should suit.”
Arrest will be in receipt of 3lb from William Haggas’ Hamish, who went through 2023 unbeaten, winning on four occasions, all at Group Three level.
Hamish is one of two in the race for the Somerville Lodge handler alongside Mujtaba, but main hopes lie with the stable stalwart, who is owned by the trainer’s father, Brian, and got the better of Karl Burke’s Al Qareem on his final start of last year in the rearranged St Simon Stakes.
The Spigot Lodge-trained five-year-old is another slated to concede weight to Arrest and his trainer is excited to get Al Qareem back on track.
Burke said: “I’m looking forward to seeing him run and he’s been ready to run for the last month.
“He’s working well, a mile and a half is his minimum trip, but on this ground I’m happy to start him off there.
“He’ll step up and be a good one-mile-six and two-mile horse later in the year. It’ll be a tough race, but I think he’ll run really well.
“We were lucky to keep him and he got travel sickness coming back (from Dubai). He’s hard work at home, Danielle Mooney rides him every day and he pulls her arms out every day, but he’s a lovely horse to have.”
Simon and Ed Crisford’s Chesspiece was behind Arrest when sixth in the Leger before finishing off his season with a silver medal in the Listed Noel Murless Stakes at Ascot.
He makes his first start after being gelded in the royal blue of Godolphin, while Andrew Balding’s Alsakib steps out of handicap company after finishing last year on a real high on home soil.
Max Vega won this in 2022 and having finished third last season, returns for a third crack, while trainer Ralph Beckett is also represented by Salt Bay.
Last year’s Irish Derby fourth Peking Opera makes his first Flat outing for Gary Moore, having been seen juvenile hurdling this winter, with Jack Channon’s Certain Lad completing the line-up.
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