Visualisation put his best foot forward on Monday afternoon at The Curragh to record a narrow victory in the Group 2 Coolmore Stud Sottsass Irish European Breeders Fund Mooresbridge Stakes.
Visualisation put his best foot forward on Monday afternoon at The Curragh to record a narrow victory in the Mooresbridge Stakes over ten furlongs. The five-year-old was third in this race last year when behind Layfayette but the form reversed with the latter runner-up. The favourite, Luxembourg could only manage fifth of the seven on his seasonal reappearance.
The seven runners broke well with the favourite settling mid-division, three back and two off the rail. It was the Joseph O'Brien-trained winner that set the tempo and lead throughout. The pace looked average before noticeably increasing entering the home straight, with most being off the bit and working hard to challenge. Declan Mcdonogh maintained his lead keeping rivals at bay, despite drifting towards the stand rail in the final strides. Last year's winner, Layfayette ran on strongly to take second ahead of Piz Badile in third.
Aidan O'Brien spoke to Racing TV about the performance of Luxembourg stating
"Run a lovely race, first run of the year so a bit rusty, will come on tonnes for it.
The plan was to come here, and back to the Tattersalls
We'll look forward to the next day with him"