There’s a new ITM in New York racing, and for once it isn’t us.
The New York Racing Association, Horse Racing Ireland and Naas Racecourse announced a reciprocal sponsorship deal this week. Ireland gets its name on a Belmont Park graded stakes, and Belmont gets its name on a race at Naas. The man speaking for the Irish side was Charles O’Neill, CEO of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. That’s the other ITM, a not-for-profit outfit that has been selling the world on Irish horses since 1991 and now operates under the HRI umbrella. I had the pleasure of meeting Charles at Cheltenham a few years back and he’s an amazing guy – he helped make my dream of going racing in Ireland a reality.
First up for the new partnership is the $500,000 Man o’ War presented by Horse Racing Ireland, a Grade 2 at 1 1/4 miles on the turf for 3-year-olds and up, on Saturday, Nov. 28 at Belmont Park. Up to two spots in the field can be held for horses shipping in from outside North America, subject to the NYRA stakes committee. Entries close Nov. 21.
“NYRA is extremely proud to work with Horse Racing Ireland and Naas Racecourse to promote the important and continually growing connection between horse racing in New York and in Ireland,” said Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing and operations.
O’Neill went straight to the history books. “In the tradition of Dermot Weld’s Go and Go or Leo O’Brien’s Fourstars Allstar, who both crossed the Atlantic to win Classics, HRI anticipates great days ahead,” he said.
Those two horses deserve more than a passing mention.
Two memorable trips, one launchpad
The two horses O’Neill named went in opposite directions, and both trips started from the same place: the Laurel Futurity in Maryland.
Go and Go won the 1989 Laurel Futurity for Dermot Weld, and Weld mapped out a Belmont Stakes run from there. In June 1990 the Irish-bred colt landed in New York days before the race, then ran away from the field under Mick Kinane to win by 8 1/4 lengths. Thirty-six years later, Weld is still the only European-based trainer to win a leg of the American Triple Crown.
A year after Go and Go’s Laurel win, a New York-bred named Fourstars Allstar finished a very good second in the same race. His trainer, Dublin-born Leo O’Brien, told The Irish Field that was when he started thinking about the Irish 2,000 Guineas. O’Brien wintered the colt on the turf in Florida with the Curragh in mind, and in May 1991 Fourstars Allstar won the Guineas by a head from Star of Gdansk under Mike Smith. He was the first American-trained horse to win a European classic, and he’s still the only one.
Fourstars Allstar was a full brother to Fourstardave, the Sultan of Saratoga. O’Brien, whom I had the pleasure of meeting very early in my time in the game, died in January at 85, which makes O’Neill’s nod to him a touching one this year. Saratoga honored him in July with the inaugural running of the Grade 1 Leo O’Brien, a 2 3/8-mile steeplechase that McTigue won in track-record time. I had a chance to remember Leo with Sean Clancy on a podcast earlier this year — it’s the first segment of the show.
A race Ireland already knows
Ireland already has some history in the Man o’ War. In July 2011, Aidan O’Brien sent Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco from Ballydoyle for his first American start. He won by 2 1/4 lengths and stopped Gio Ponti from winning it three times on the bounce. Cape Blanco went on to take the Arlington Million and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic and was named champion turf male in the U.S. for 2011.
Weld got his own Man o’ War six years later. In May 2017, on a rain-soaked Belmont card that sent three turf races to the dirt, his mare Zhukova beat four males by six lengths under John Velazquez (Leo O’Brien’s son-in-law). She was the first mare to win the race in 39 years. Weld told TDN the race had long fascinated him, partly because Ron Turcotte rated Secretariat’s 1973 Man o’ War as the best thing the Triple Crown winner ever did.
The 2026 edition will naturally look different. The Man o’ War used to be a spring fixture at Belmont. When NYRA built the fall stakes schedule for the new Belmont, it moved the race to Nov. 28 and grouped it with the Jockey Club Derby, the Jockey Club Oaks, the Long Island and two New York Stallion Stakes races.
Belmont goes to Naas
The return leg comes on Wednesday, June 23, 2027, when Belmont Park sponsors an Irish EBF fillies’ maiden at Naas. It’s on the same card as the Group 3 Jannah Rose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. As Sport for Business pointed out, the timing is handy: the meeting falls during the Goffs Breeze Up Sales and just ahead of the Irish Derby Festival at the Curragh, with plenty of international buyers in town.
“We are delighted to partner with NYRA and Horse Racing Ireland on this exciting initiative, which further strengthens the relationship between Irish and American racing,” said Naas Racecourse manager Aidan McGarry.
The deal also builds on a relationship that’s already in place. In October 2024, HRI signed a memorandum of understanding with the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund, covering racing programs, breeding and bloodstock sales, education, employment and welfare. Fund chairman Brian O’Dwyer said at the time that he wanted more Irish horses racing in New York and more New York horses racing in Ireland.
NYRA has a shiny new building to show off, too. Belmont Park reopened Sept. 18 after a three-year rebuild costing $555 million, a $455 million state loan plus $100 million from NYRA. It hosts the Breeders’ Cup next fall. Offerman said NYRA strongly believes the partnership highlights “the worldwide impact that the new Belmont Park can have.”
More from ITM: handicapping for the Belmont fall meet is in our Belmont Park coverage, including the free Maiden Race of the Day. Picks for every track we’re playing are on the Today’s Racing page. And as the countdown to the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont starts, look back at this year’s racing at Keeneland on our Breeders’ Cup hub.
