'Heaven' Gives O'Brien Fifth Irish Oaks Win

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Photo: Caroline Norris
Seventh Heaven finishes strong to win the Irish Oaks.

Seventh Heaven came back from a drubbing in the Epsom Oaks (Eng-I) last time out and defeated Oaks runner-up Architecture in the Irish equivalent July 17 at the Curragh.

Coolmore and partners daughter of Galileo provided trainer Aidan O'Brien a fifth victory in the Irish classic, scoring a 14-1odds while stablemate and 4-5 favorite Even Song was a lackluster seventh following her Ribblesdale (Eng-II) win at Royal Ascot. 

Seventh Heaven was sixth in the June 3 Epsom Oaks, beaten 32 3/4 lengths by Minding, but on Saturday displayed the prowess of her May 7 Betfred Mobile  Oaks Trial Fillies Stakes win over Architecture, second that day by a neck. 

While Seventh Heaven relaxed under Seamus Heffernan near the back of the Irish Oaks field Pretty Perfect, also trained by O'Brien, cut out the early running before Architecture breezed by with a quarter mile to run. Seventh Heaven made good progress between rivals early in the stretch, collared Architecture 200 yards out, and pulled clear to win by 2 3/4 lengths.

Epsom Oaks third Harlequeen was third again, finishing 1 1/4 lengths behind Architecture. 

Final time for 1 1/2 miles on good turf was 2:34.54. 

The victory marked the third in six career starts for Irish-bred Seventh Heaven, a half sister to English group I winner Crusade and to Irish group-placed Cristoforo Colombo.  Their dam, the Johannesburg mare La Traviata, won the 2007 Victory Ride Stakes (gr. III) at Saratoga Race Course after Coolmore bloodstock adviser Demi O'Byrne bought her for $1.1 million at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Calder selected 2-year-olds in training. 

Two races later on the Irish Oaks card, Coolmore homebred De Coronado, a full brother to 2010 U.S. Horse of the Year Zenyatta, finished ninth in his career debut. 

The 3-year-old son of Street Cry—Vertigineux, owned by the Coolmore and partners Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith and trained by Aidan O'Brien, was rated toward the back of the 12-horse field and ultimately made no impression in the 1 1/2-mile race won by 4-6 favorite Twilight Payment.