Diego Velazquez prevails in Minstrel Stakes

Diego Velazquez showed his versatility in pulling out all the stops to land the Romanised Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh.

Aidan O’Brien’s son of Frankel was winning for the fifth time in his 10-race career, but was tackling the shortest distance he has encountered since making a winning debut over the same course and distance as a two-year-old.

The 11-8 favourite for the Group Two event in the hands of Ryan Moore, he was well away and always in a handy position alongside Adrian Murray’s Irish 1,000 Guineas runner-up California Dreamer.

Moore may have been low in the saddle inside the final quarter-mile but he had a willing ally and although the challengers were queuing up a furlong from home, it was only David Marnane’s 25-1 shot East Hampton who emerged from the pack to lay down a stern challenge in the closing stages.

Diego Velazquez, however, was never headed and even though East Hampton was within a neck at the winning post, the class of the Ballydoyle colt was always keeping him on top.

O’Brien said: “A mile is probably his trip. We were preparing him for Ascot and we had him in the stalls at Leopardstown, but he got upset and had to be withdrawn (from the Amethyst Stakes) and that upset his Ascot plan.

“I wasn’t confident enough to tell Ryan to ride him as forward as he would have liked (in the Queen Anne Stakes) because he hadn’t had a run. They only walked the first half of the race, so it was a non event really.

“We knew he would come forward a lot from then to today and he did well to win today over seven. He’s a brave horse and Ryan gave him a good ride.

“He’s a very well-made horse – powerful, strong, a great walker. Physically as a specimen he’s a tank really.

“We’ll go back up to a mile now for the Sussex or the Jacques le Marois, something like that.

“He’ll have no problem getting back up to nine furlongs or a mile and a quarter at the end of the season.”