There are few finer sights than standing in Piazza San Marco and taking in the magnificent St Mark's Basilica, but watching the horse named after the famous Venetian cathedral storming clear July 3 in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes (G1) at Sandown may be one of them.
A race criticized in some quarters for the four-runner turnout produced a stunning champion in St Mark's Basilica, already a dual classic winner in France for Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor—and surely the classiest 3-year-old middle-distance turf runner in training.
It may have lacked quantity but this was a high-class Coral-Eclipse with older horses Addeybb and Mishriff bringing some of the finest middle-distance form from around the globe to the party.
It ultimately proved an impossible task for them trying to give 10 pounds in weight-for-age to St Mark's Basilica, who went past his older rivals as though they were running on a treadmill inside the final quarter-mile.
No doubt Addeybb and Mishriff would have loved to have drawn the youngster into a prolonged battle, but St Mark's Basilica never gave them the chance and once he was past them he was away and gone.
Such was his turn of foot, trainer Aidan O'Brien, who was winning the Eclipse for a record-equaling sixth time, hailed his latest superstar "a little bit different" to those who have gone before, with both he and winning jockey Ryan Moore speaking of the winner as one of the brightest talents they have come across.
"Of all the times we've trained horses through all the years I can't remember that we've had one like that," said O'Brien. "We've had horses get into battles and fight and brawl it out but he's very happy to follow horses and quicken. He puts races to bed very quickly—that's what he did again today and he's just a bit different.
"I don't know if we've come to as strong an Eclipse with a 3-year-old before. They were two proper older horses and he gave them a couple of lengths and the pace was slow. He let them play their hands first and then came after them. I can't say I remember another one to do it."
While O'Brien said tackling 1 1/2 miles was not out of the question, it was St Mark's Basilica's speed that he kept coming back to and in particular, the potent turn of foot that had already provided him with a Darley Dewhurst Stakes (G1) score at 2 and both the Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains (G1) and Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (G1) at 3 before this tour de force.
The trainer added: "Ryan was blown away with him today—he couldn't believe the way that when he asked him, how well he quickened. He's a relaxed traveler but when you really go for him he really turns it on and I think that's the mark of a really special horse."
O'Brien has seen just about everything in his career but such is his confidence in this horse, he said he feels something different heading into the heat of battle standing behind St Mark's Basilica.
"He's always a horse that you're confident with going into races," he explained. "It's a different feeling with that type of horse. The only nerves I had was that he had a lot to lose today. He's after winning two classics and a Dewhurst so he had a lot to lose.
"He had to step in against the older horses at some stage and it wasn't as if they were middle-of-the-road older horses. For him to do that to them makes it very special."
This was only the second time Moore had partnered the son of Siyouni on the racecourse and the first time this season, and the former champion jockey was as impressed as his boss.
"He's won a Dewhurst, a French Guineas, and a French Derby, and the two horses he had to run against are proven to be as good as any horses in the world, so he's very exciting," said the rider, who was winning the Eclipse for a second time. "He's a straightforward horse but he's got a really good turn of foot.
"When I asked him to go do his job he picked up and put the race away very quickly. When you're running against two proven horses that are extremely tough they are going to get you off the bridle at some stage, so he had to work to go and do it but he was very good in the final furlong."
The winner was shortened to 6-4 (from 3) for the Juddmonte International Stakes (G1) by Paddy Power and Betfair, with York's group 1 Aug. 19 and the Irish Champion Stakes (G1) at Leopardstown Sept. 12 in the reckoning.
"The lads will decide where they want to go but he has options to go to York and Leopardstown and I'd say something like that," said O'Brien. "He'd have no problem going back to a mile at all. Looking at him now, he's very comfortable at a mile and a quarter but it depends what route the lads want to go."
The race for second, three and a half lengths behind the leader, was itself a fine spectacle, with Addeybb edging out Mishriff by a neck. El Drama finished 2 3/4 lengths further away in fourth.
"He gave everything," said Addeybb's rider Tom Marquand. "He's an absolute superstar—giving that weight to the best three-year-old in Europe, and probably the world. I'm really pleased with him and he's pulled up great."
Joint-trainer John Gosden said: "Mishriff had been off for a long time and in the last furlong the ground found him out. He traveled into it well but he was never going to get near the winner. I think the race will bring him on and we'll go to the Juddmonte at York now."
