Twilight Payment

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Twilight Payment
Her Majesty's Plate (2018)
Saval Beg Stakes (2019)
Curragh Cup (2019, 2020)
Vintage Crop Stakes (2020)
Melbourne Cup (2020)
Irish St Leger Trial Stakes
(2021)

Twilight Payment (foaled 6 May 2013) is an Irish

Her Majesty's Plate. In 2019 he won the Saval Beg Stakes and the Curragh Cup before moving to the stable of Joseph Patrick O'Brien. As a seven-year-old in 2020 he took the Vintage Crop Stakes
and a second Curragh Cup before being sent to Australia and winning the Melbourne Cup on 3 November and produced a new career peak Timeform rating of 121.

Background

Twilight Payment is a bay horse with a white star and a white sock on his left foreleg bred in Ireland by the trainer Jim Bolger. He entered training with Bolger at Coolcullen, County Carlow and was ridden in most of his early races by Bolger's son-in-law Kevin Manning. The horse initially raced in the colours of Godolphin.

He was from the fifth crop of foals sired by the Teofilo the undefeated

Happy Clapper, Humidor and Kermadec.[2] Twilight Payment's dam Dream On Buddy showed modest racing ability, winning two minor races from eleven starts.[3] She was a half-sister to the Ribblesdale Stakes winner Banimpire and a great-granddaughter of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Detroit.[4]

Racing career

2016 & 2017: early career

Twilight Payment did not race until he was three years old and began his track career by running fourth in a

4/6 favourite for a one and a half mile maiden and recorded his first success as he led from the start and prevailed by a length from Ex Patriot.[5] He then ran second to Order of St George in the Irish St Leger Trial before ending his first season in the Listed Loughbrown Stakes at the Curragh on 25 September when he produced a strong late run to win by half a length from the favourite Forgotten Rules.[6]

Twilight Payment failed to win as a four-year-old in 2017, but ran well in several major staying events. He finished third to Torcedor in the

gelded
.

2018: five-year-old season

In 2018 Twilight Payment ran second to Order of St George in the Saval Beg Stakes and then finished third behind Flag of Honour in the

Irish St Leger. In his two subsequent starts he finished second to Cypress Creek when favourite for the Loughbrown Stakes and third to Sir Erec in the Listed Martin Molony Stakes at Limerick Racecourse
on 13 October.

In November the gelding was consigned to the Goffs Horses In Training sale and was bought for €200,000 by the bloodstock agents Kerr & Co Ltd.[8]

2019: six-year-old season

In the early part of 2019 Twilight Payment raced in the colours of Jackie Bolger, his trainer's wife. He began the season in April when he finished second in a minor event at

Gowran Park and then ran fourth to Master of Reality in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan. In the Saval Beg Stakes over fourteen furlongs on 17 May he started at odds of 6/1 and won from Falcon Eight and Capri, staying on well after taking the lead approaching the final furlong.[9] The gelding followed up in the Curragh Cup over the same distance on 28 June, leading from the start and fighting off the sustained challenge of the 2018 Irish Derby winner Latrobe to prevail by a neck.[10] The winning jockey, Kevin Manning: "Believe it or not his homework has been unbelievable since he won at Leopardstown. He has been stepping forward all year. His form has been rock-solid all through his career and he has improved a little bit this season... He only just does what he has to do but he's a real grinder and loves getting into a battle."[11]

Twilight Payment was then acquired by the Australian businessman

Irish St Leger and was then shipped to Australia for the Melbourne Cup. Ridden by Hugh Bowman he started a 40/1 outsider and finished eleventh, but was beaten less than four lengths by the winner Vow And Declare
.

2020: seven-year-old season

Twilight Payment began his next campaign with a trip to Saudi Arabia where he finished seventh behind Call The Wind in the Longines Turf Handicap at Riyadh on 29 February. On his return to Europe he ran second to the four-year-old Nickajack Cave in the Saval Beg Stakes and then started 15/8 favourite for the Vintage Crop Stakes over fourteen furlongs at the Curragh on 27 June. Ridden by Wayne Lordan he led from the start and drew away in the final furlong to win by two and a half lengths from Barbados, with Sovereign, Falcon Eight and Master of Reality finishing behind.[12] On 18 July he repeated his 2019 success in the Curragh Cup, starting odds on favourite and winning "easily" by eight lengths from Master of Reality after taking the lead three furlongs from the finish.[13] Joseph O'Brien said "I think it was a big performance... this fella stayed going all the way to the line".[14] In the Irish St Leger on 13 September he kept on well in the closing stages but was beaten into third place by Search For A Song and Fujaira Prince.

He was then shipped to Australia again to contest his second Melbourne Cup and started at odds of 25/1 for the race over 3200 metres at

Might And Power in 1997 and the oldest winner of the Cup since Catalogue in 1938.[15] Jye McNeil commented "It's been a lifelong dream to get this moment and to get this winner is very surreal. I had to be positive. He was a little bit slow into gear. He jumped with them but he was a touch slow to really find his rhythm. I encouraged him to go forward and that was the plan and then he found just a lovely tempo. He got into a fantastic rhythm, breathing really well and then it was a matter of amping the tempo up at the right stage".[16] Joseph O'Brien said "The horse has got incredible heart. Jye gave him a fantastic ride and he has a huge will to win and he just kept on fighting all the way to the line".[17]

Pedigree

Pedigree of Twilight Payment (IRE), bay gelding, 2013[1]
Sire
Teofilo (IRE)
2004 		Galileo (IRE)
1998 		Sadler's Wells (USA) Northern Dancer (CAN)
Fairy Bridge
Urban Sea (USA) Miswaki
Allegretta (GB)
Speirbhean (IRE)
1998 		Danehill (USA) Danzig
Razyana
Saviour (USA) Majestic Light
Victorian Queen (CAN)
Dam
Dream On Buddy (IRE)
2007 		Oasis Dream (GB)
2000 		Green Desert (USA) Danzig
Foreign Courier
Hope (IRE) Dancing Brave (USA)
Bahamian
My Renee (USA)
2000
Kris S
 Roberto
Sharp Queen
Mayenne Nureyev
Detroit (Family: 16-c)[4]

References

  1. ^ a b "Twilight Payment pedigree". Equineline.
  2. ^ "Teofilo – Stud Record". Racing Post.
  3. ^ "Dream On Buddy – Race Record". Racing Post.
  4. ^ a b "Little Agnes – Family 16-c". Thoroughbred Bloodlines.
  5. ^ "Kilsaran International Maiden result". Racing Post. 16 July 2016.
  6. ^ "Loughbrown Stakes result". Racing Post. 24 September 2016.
  7. ^ "Her Majesty's Plate result". Racing Post. 27 July 2018.
  8. ^ "Goffs - Autumn HIT Sale 2018, Lot 690". www.goffs.com.
  9. ^ "Saval Beg Stakes result". Racing Post. 17 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Curragh Cup result". Racing Post. 28 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Twilight Payment battles bravely to win the Curragh Cup". www.thoroughbrednews.com.au.
  12. ^ "Vintage Crop Stakes result". Racing Post. 27 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Curragh Cup Stakes result". Racing Post. 18 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Twilight Payment shines in Curragh Cup for Joseph O'Brien one-two". Racing TV.
  15. Sydney Morning Herald
    .
  16. ^ Ractliffe, Damien (3 November 2020). "McNeil relishes 'miracle' Cup win on Twilight Payment". The Age.
  17. ^ "Twilight Payment wins Melbourne Cup" – via BBC.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twilight_Payment&oldid=1090274578"