Trainer Ken Condon has had better luck at home than he did in Sydney with Romanised giving him his first Classic victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh.
Condon brought Success Days to Sydney to run against Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in April, expecting a typically wet autumn track which did not materialise.
Success Days, last in the Sydney race, will bid to turn his Group One fortunes around on the second day of the Guineas meeting in the Gold Cup.
Condon believed Romanised could defy his odds of 25-1 and was proved right when the colt ran out a clear-cut winner under Shane Foley to beat the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair of US Navy Flag and Gustav Klimt.
“We kept faith in him and he had excuses at Naas on his comeback,” Condon said.
“He worked the best he’s worked all spring last Tuesday. We knew we were a long shot coming in here, but I felt he was going to run a big race.
“He’s always shown talent and he just seems to have come to himself in the last few weeks.
“I’m in a bit of shock and it will be a few days before it sinks in. It’s just amazing to win a Classic. It’s all I wanted to do when I entered racing.”
Condon said Romanised held Royal Ascot entries for the St James’s Palace Stakes and Commonwealth Cup.
Despite not winning the Group One event, O’Brien dominated the rest of the card with four winners including Australian Group One winner Merchant Navy who took out the Group Two Greenlands Stakes.
