Churchill Conquers Europe
Churchill, with a rating of 122, has today been announced as
the ninth European champion two-year-old to be trained by
Aidan O’Brien in the past 18 years as the European two-year-
old Classification 2016 is published.
In winning both the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at
the Curragh and the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket,
he follows in the footsteps of previous champions Air Force
Blue (124), Dawn Approach (124), New Approach (126) and
Teofilo (123), all of whom won both of these races en route to
becoming the continent’s leading juvenile.
Mark Bird, Irish Turf Club Handicapper and delegate at the
European two-year-old meeting, said:
“Churchill’s final rating of 122 sits just marginally below this
century’s par rating for a European Champion two-year-old
of 123. However, the progressive nature of his form allied to
his obvious physical scope and impressive pedigree give rise
to hope that his early career may be just the launch pad to
greater success as a three-year-old.
42 | The Gentleman Magazine
“As his namesake once stated, “the price of greatness is
responsibility”, so we hope and expect that Churchill will live
up to his reputation in 2017”.
Aidan O’Brien would also have been responsible for the
top three juvenile fillies were it not for the exploits of the
outstanding Lady Aurelia (121), who missed out only
narrowly on being rated Europe’s first female two-year-old
champion since Ravinella shared top honours with Warning
back in 1987.
Nevertheless, she is rated the best two-year-old filly in more
than a decade, having produced one of the most memorable
performances since Arazi when smashing both the opposition
and the clock in the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot. That
121-rated performance is trumped only by Queen’s Logic’s
2001 success in the Cheveley Park (122) in the fillies’ division
in the last 24 years.
Graeme Smith, British Horseracing Authority (BHA)
Handicapper responsible for two-year-olds, said:
“How Lady Aurelia will fare in 2017 is one of the more
intriguing questions for the season ahead. Neither her