Cairo, a Quality Road colt trained by Aidan O'Brien for the Coolmore partners, jumped to the top of the European Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with a two-length victory March 3 in the Patton Stakes on the Dundalk Stadium all-weather course in Ireland.
Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore score in the PATTON STAKES with #1 CAIRO, a son of Quality Road. This is a stop on the European Road to the Kentucky Derby; Cairo has earned 20 points. pic.twitter.com/JUo3YRCwKE
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) March 3, 2023
With Ryan Moore up, Cairo tracked the early lead in the one-mile Patton, got to the front entering the stretch and won comfortably. News At Ten was second and Stormy Entry, a Charles Fipke homebred, stayed on for third.
The Patton kicked off the second half of the European Road. The first four events, run in the autumn on turf, usually attract candidates for the European classics rather than for American dirt races and none of the point-getters from those races reappeared for the Patton.
Cairo's future also may be on the turf in the Emerald Isle as he holds entries for both the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1) and the Irish Derby (G1). Out of the Galileo mare Cuff, the colt is bred for the turf and three of his four starts as a 2-year-old were on the grass. He finished second in his only previous all-weather start at Dundalk.
Cairo, however, also is an early nominee to the U.S. Triple Crown so the Kentucky Derby (G1) is not out of the picture, especially as O'Brien has a history along those lines.
In 2018, O'Brien brought Mendelssohn back from victory in the previous year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) at Del Mar to win the Patton, then shipped the Scat Daddy colt to Dubai where he won the U.A.E. Derby (G2).
The Dubai win boosted Mendelssohn to the Kentucky Derby, where he was knocked sideways at the start on the sloppy track and never recovered, finishing last and prompting O'Brien to realize American dirt racing isn't played by the Marquess of Queensberry's rules.
"In America, dirt racing is very aggressive at the best of times but when the weather goes like that, the aggression turns into nearly savagery," O'Brien said in the aftermath.
Cairo earned 20 points on the Churchill Downs-sponsored European Road to the Kentucky Derby, putting him atop that list. The series continues with the Road to the Kentucky Derby Condition Stakes at Kempton Park in England March 15, with 20 points to the winner, and concludes with the Cardinal Condition Stakes at Chelmsford City April 1, where the winner gets 30 points.
The top points-earner is invited to accept a guaranteed spot in the Churchill Downs starting gate on the first Saturday in May. If the invitation is declined by the leaders, it can devolve as far down as the fourth in the standings.
Fipke said before the race Stormy Entry would accept the invitation should it fall to him in that manner.
