Point well made by returning Lonsdale in Alleged Stakes
Point Lonsdale showed the engine remains firmly intact to make a winning return in the SP Or Better Guaranteed With Tote Alleged Stakes at the Curragh.
Aidan O’Brien’s Australia colt struck four times as a two-year-old, winning not only the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot but also the Tyros Stakes and Futurity Stakes on home soil.
He lost his unbeaten record in the final start of his juvenile campaign, finishing second to Native Trail in the National Stakes, and then suffered his second defeat when unable to land a blow in last year’s Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
🏇 Point Lonsdale gets back on track after landing the Group 3 SP Or Better Guaranteed With Tote Alleged Stakes for Wayne Lordan and Aidan O'Brien 👏 pic.twitter.com/8Pkbh4xPGk
— The Curragh Racecourse (@curraghrace) April 16, 2023
That was his only start at three and he has since spent 351 days on the sidelines.
But he allayed any fitness doubts stepping up in trip in this 10-furlong Group Three and having shadowed Joseph O’Brien’s Visualisation on the front end, showed a tremendous attitude to reel in that chief market rival when hitting top gear in the closing stages.
“I’m very happy with that on his first run back on that ground. He’s going to stay further,” said O’Brien.
“We thought as a two-year-old he would get further than seven furlongs, but he never went any further because we had other horses. Then we ran him in the Guineas and he got injured.
“There was nowhere to hide today. Joseph’s horse went a good gallop and none of the other horses were able to close.”
Set to be campaigned over similar distances to fellow high-class four-year-old Luxembourg, Epsom’s Coronation Cup could become the major summer target for Point Lonsdale as O’Brien shuffles his pack accordingly.
He continued: “We have Luxembourg in the same sort of bracket.
“At the moment we are looking at the Ganay for him and if not the Mooresbridge.
“This horse could go for something like the Coronation (Cup) and take in another race before that.”
Betfair shortened Point Lonsdale to 14-1 from 20s for that contest, while he is 10-1 from 16-1 for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
