Fallon aiming to finish Group One season in style

After his lengthy spell in Australia, Kieren Fallon returns tomorrow to European Group One action in France, where he will be on board the Aidan O'Brien-trained Soldier Of Fortune in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

As well as the son of Galileo, an impressive Navan winner last month, O'Brien will also be represented by Red Rock Canyon (Séamus Heffernan) in the mile-and-a-quarter event, which winds up the Group One season in Europe for 2006.

Other Irish interest in the 13- runner field will centre on the Dermot Weld-trained Consul General (Pat Smullen), a seven-length Cork winner in his only start to date, in September.

The Khaled Abdullah-owned Selkirk colt has been supplemented into the juvenile highlight along with the owner's other hope, the filly Passage Of Time from the Henry Cecil stable in Newmarket.

Fallon having travelled early to Australia for what was ultimately a fruitless raid on the Melbourne Cup by Yeats, this will be his first taste of European action for almost four weeks.

The former champion jockey has yet to land the 10-furlong Saint-Cloud stamina test but it has been a rewarding race for O'Brien in the past, Ballingarry (2001) and Alberto Giacometti (2002) both winning.

There will be no Group One tag on offer for today's opener at Naas but there will be huge interest nevertheless in the second racecourse appearance of the much-hyped Noel Meade-trained Aran Concerto.

The five-year-old justified his home reputation in a bumper here in September and did so to such effect that Meade described him as possibly the best he has ever trained.

That's a big claim by the champion trainer and, even allowing for inexperience, it will still need an impressive victory by Aran Concerto today to avoid wholesale disappointment.

Another horse with a big reputation is the ex-German Catch Me, who tries for a second course-and-distance success in the conditions hurdle.

Catch Me's jumping didn't totally convince on his debut, however, and there was a lot to like about the return to action of Mister Hight on the flat at Leopardstown last weekend.

Zeroberto is an interesting newcomer to chasing in the Beginners Chase but he will have to be firing on all cylinders to cope with Royaldou, whose hurdling form last season wasn't far off the best around.