WESTOVER franked the Group 1 Derby form in no uncertain terms on Saturday, and gave his sire, Frankel, an incredible third Group 1 win in nine days when he stormed home seven lengths clear of his nearest rival in the €1 million Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh.

Denied a clear passage at Epsom when finishing less than three lengths behind the winner, Desert Crown, the Ralph Beckett-trained Westover left nothing to chance this time and was given an inspired ride by Colin Keane.

The pair drew right away to score in emphatic fashion, with Piz Badile a distant second and French Claim holding on for third, ahead of the Epsom Oaks heroine Tuesday.

Westover is a landmark 30th homebred classic winner produced by the late Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, and their second in the Irish Derby. They have had to be patient, as the previous success was enjoyed when Commander In Chief won back in 1993.

In a sterling season for his sire, Westover is the fourth individual three-year-old Group 1 winner for Banstead Manor Stud’s Frankel, following on from the Irish 1000 Guineas triumph of Homeless Songs in May, and more recently the Coronation Stakes victory of Inspiral and the Prix de Diane-French Oaks win for Nashwa.

Simon Mockridge, general manager of Juddmonte Farms UK, was delighted with Westover’s classic annihilation. He said: “It was a scintillating performance by Westover, super impressive, and I know that Prince Khalid’s family are ecstatic to have their first classic win since he passed away early last year.

“Westover is from an amazing family which goes back to our Prix de Diane winner, Nebraska Tornado, and is testament to Prince Khalid’s 34 years of breeding expertise. The pedigree tells us that he should have an awful lot of speed, so don’t be surprised if he comes back in distance. He looked like he could have won easily if today’s race had been over 10 furlongs.

Finished well

“Although we were very happy for him to finish in the first three at Epsom, when you watch the race back and see the job Rob Hornby had to do to extricate him, he did finish remarkably strongly. Even so, no one could have expected him to win in the style that he has today.

“He was a very big foal, weighing 154 pounds, so Ralph [Beckett] did an incredible job to get him to race as often as he did last year. Sadly, we lost his mother, Mirabilis, last year at the age of 19 because of a nasty foot problem, but she had one more foal, an Expert Eye now two-year-old filly called Jalapa, who is with Ralph but has yet to see a racecourse.”

When asked about Westover’s sire Frankel, Mockridge commented: “Frankel has just been an absolute delight to have anything to do with. He was a truly great racehorse and he has made a phenomenal start to his stallion career. He is covering 180 mares per season at the moment, which is to be expected from a stallion who can now boast over 50 individual group winners, including 23 at Group 1 level and nine classic winners.”

With just six starts under his belt, Westover is surely a colt on the up and up, and this victory easily trumped anything he had achieved previously. One of seven winners out of the Grade 3 winner Mirabilis, a daughter of Lear Fan (Roberto), Westover has two full-brothers who are winners. Monarchs Glen (Frankel) is a Group 3 winner in England and a stakes winner in the USA, while Fabilis (Frankel) was sold for 350,000gns last year after winning three times and is now racing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Simon Mockridge mentioned Nebraska Tornado (Storm Cat), and she won her classic 19 years ago. She is a half-sister to Mirabilis, the dam of the weekend’s star, and they are daughters of the Grade 2 Santa Anita winner Media Nox (Lycius) who won the Group 3 Prix du Bois at the age of two in France. In addition to being the dam of a classic winner, Media Nox bred the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam winner Burning Sun (Danzig).