Rosallion leads home Hannon one-two in Irish 2,000 Guineas

Rosallion (10/11f) ran down stablemate Haatem to give Richard Hannon jnr his first success in the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh.

Strong-travelling Haatem took over from Unquestionable racing into the final quarter of a mile and Rosallion came off the bridle with work to do in fifth place.

Haatem set sail for home over a furlong out and Rosallion, who had improved into third, set about reeling him in.

The leader did little wrong as he strained every sinew for the line, but Rosallion picked him up in the final strides to win by a head. The runner-up went off at 6/1 and was a length and a-quarter in front of River Tiber (3/1).

Winning jockey Sean Levey said: "I always thought it was going to be a bit like that. The only horse that presented pace in the race was one of ours (Haatem).

"I thought he (Haatem) would be hard beat here today, so I knew when I got to him he had just done everything right for himself and he has dragged me to the line, so he has had to work hard to get by him.

"My lad can get a bit generous if you put him in a position where he has to be competitive, so the only thing I could do was take (him) out of it.

"I was confident I was going to get him (Haatem), especially that last bit where he is climbing all the time.

"Hopefully, they both come out of it okay.

"No doubt (huge training performance by Richard Hannon), he has rolled the dice on a few occasions and he has come up on top. After the Guineas, he said he really wanted to come here and it has paid off again.

"He is absolutely brilliant to ride for, like his father before him. We work really well together because he doesn't tell me anything! I think his view is that he has done the training and the riding is completely up to me. If I get it wrong, don't get me wrong, my head is on the chopping block!

"Fingers crossed, hopefully Ascot is the next step.

"I had my first ride here on South Wind Rising (17/4/05) and it is nice to come back with a favourite's chance and deliver."

Hannon added: “I'm delighted, both of them have run a super race.

“Rosallion was a bit keen early and Haatem is such a brave horse, he's run such a lovely race and I've never known a horse to have as many supporters as he has. He probably didn't deserve to get beat, but his day will come.

“Rosallion, I'm absolutely delighted with him, I couldn't be happier.

“There is so much work that goes into these, there is a big team at home and I'm really pleased. These days are very rare and we're going to enjoy it.

“He took a bit of time to pick them up. He's such a hyped horse and he's not going to please everybody. He proved he got the trip today and that was the pleasing thing.

“We'll go to the St James's Palace Stakes and try our best to beat the horse that beat us last time (Notable Speech). It will be hard.

“He's probably had quite a hard race there, both of them have.

“I love the second horse, he's such a smashing horse and it's a pleasure to have him. I'm delighted with him.

“Haatem has probably run the race of his life. This is a Guineas, they go on about how it's not a vintage Guineas, but all the best horses had their chance and these two have run smashing races.

“I'm delighted for Sean, for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid and Sheikh Abdullah will be delighted with his horse as he lost nothing in defeat, if anything he's probably earned more fans and his day will come.

“I think he'll (Haatem) get further and will discuss it with the Sheikh and the team and see where we go, but there are a lot of lovely days in him. I'd love to think they'll both stay in training next year, please!"

Aidan O'Brien said of third-placed River Tiber: “I was delighted. I would probably have preferred if it was a more end-to-end gallop, we'd have learned about the mile better.

“We still don't know if he really gets a mile or not. We have a choice to make now in Ascot, do we go back to six, do we go seven or do we go St James's Palace.

“Ryan wants to go to the Jersey because he wants Henry (Longfellow) for the St James's Palace, he's trying to divide them all!

“Maybe he'll get his way, but it'll depend on what the lads want to do.

“He probably has loads of speed, which we knew he had. He never ran beyond six before and it was hard to ride him any more forward.

“He did what we thought, he was better than (fourth-placed) Unquestionable. Unquestionable will improve plenty because he got tired, which we thought he would as well.

“It's going to be interesting if they all meet in the St James's Palace, it's whether he goes to that or the Jersey.”

Rosallion and Haatem had finished second and third respectively in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Paddy Power cut Rosallion from 3/1 to 7/4f for the St James's Palace Stakes.

Richard Hannon snr won the Irish 2,000 Guineas on three occasions.

Additional reporting by Gary Carson