DERMOT WELD-TRAINED Harzand won the Irish Derby today at The Curragh to become the 18th horse to achieve the Epsom/Irish Derby double.
Harzand — who gave Weld his first victory in the blue riband at Epsom earlier this month — beat home Aidan O’Brien’s first string Idaho, who was third in the Epsom Derby, with outsider Stellar Mass third.
A competitive edge was taken off the race with the withdrawal of Idaho’s stablemate US Army Ranger, the runner-up at Epsom.
Nevertheless Idaho didn’t make it easy for the winner — whose pacemaker Ebediyin set a rattling pace but to little avail as the remainder of the field largely refused to play his game — matching him stride for stride in the final furlong.
However, Weld’s stable jockey Pat Smullen just managed to get an extra burst out of the odds-on favourite and edge out Ryan Moore on the valiant Idaho to pass the post 1/2 a length to the good.
Stellar Mass — trained by Weld’s longtime rival Jim Bolger — finished 3 3/4 lengths back.
