Weld waits on Curragh going

RACING/IRISH ST LEGER NEWS:THE ASCOT Gold Cup winner Rite Of Passage has been installed favourite in some lists for the final Classic of 2010 in Ireland, Saturday's Irish Field St Leger, but Dermot Weld is holding fire on a final decision about allowing the horse an opportunity to join some select company.

Only the outstanding stayers Yeats (2007) and Kayf Tara (1998) have completed the Gold Cup-Irish Leger double in the same year, and Weld is anxious ground conditions don’t turn against Rite Of Passage.

The legendary Curragh trainer was able to examine the heavy rain that fell on his local track at first hand yesterday, and with broken weather for the rest of the week Weld doesn’t want the Leger to turn into a slog for either Rite Of Passage or his stable companion Profound Beauty.

“It was good ground here but it could go heavy very easy the way the weather is,” he warned.

“Ideally the plan is to run both, but we won’t make a definite decision until later in the week. No one can know right now what way the ground is going to go.”

Bookmakers differed yesterday about which of the Weld runners is the trainer’s main Leger hope. Paddy Power make Rite Of Passage a 5 to 2 favourite, while Ladbrokes are siding with Profound Beauty as their market leader at the same price.

Either way, Weld is pursuing a seventh Leger victory after Vinnie Roe’s historic four-in-a-row and Vintage Crop’s back-to-back victories in 1993 and 1994.

Rite Of Passage hasn’t been seen in action since edging out Age Of Aquarius in an epic Gold Cup finish at Ascot on officially good to firm ground.

Going at the Curragh deteriorated throughout yesterday. Some 21mm of rain fell overnight and, after a brief interlude, it rained again up to yesterday evening.

“The heaviest rain is supposed to fall today but it is supposed to remain quite broken for the week, with heavy showers,” said Curragh manager Paul Hensey.

“It is very difficult to predict what kind of ground we will have by Saturday but I would say it will definitely be on the easy side.”

Seventeen horses remain in the Leger, including seven cross-sea possibilities that could be led by Opinion Poll, the Michael Jarvis horse which won the Lonsdale Stakes at York on his last start.

Also entered is Jeremy Noseda’s Geoffrey Freer Stakes winner Sans Frontieres and Godolphin’s high-class stayer Kite Wood. Only Collier Hill (2005) has won the Leger for Britain in the last nine years.

Charlie Swan, who will be involved in a veteran jockeys’ challenge race at Doncaster this week, had his trainer hat firmly on yesterday when he supplemented his progressive dual-purpose horse Rajik into the Leger at a cost of €24,000.

Aidan O’Brien has left in three possibles, but he has already indicated his likely starters are the Irish Oaks third Lady Lupus and Flying Cross, while Pop Rock, the 2006 Melbourne Cup runner-up, will provide a further international twist to the €240,000 highlight.

The former top-class Japanese runner is now trained on the Curragh by Takashi Kodema and won his sole Irish start to date at Galway’s summer festival.

Saturday’s other Group One prize, the Boylesports Vincent O’Brien National Stakes, could see the cream of Ireland’s juvenile crop take each other on after Jessica Harrington supplemented Pathfork at a cost of €20,000.

The unbeaten colt is among 13 possibles for the seven-furlong event along with the Phoenix Stakes winner Zoffany, who heads a seven-strong entry from O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team.

“He is a possible runner but at this stage only a possible,” the champion trainer said ahead of a race he has already won seven times with superstar names such as King Of Kings and George Washington.

Godolphin has supplemented the unbeaten colt Janood into the race. The son of Medicean won the Listed Washington and Singer Stakes at Newbury last time.

Weld will decide later in the week whether A Word Apart, a maiden winner at Leopardstown on Saturday, will take part.

“We’ve decided to leave him in. He’s a very fit horse and stays well so we will see,” he said

Glor Na Mara may represent Jim Bolger, while Michael Halford has the option of running his impressive Tipperary scorer Casamento.

BETTING: 5-2 Rite Of Passage, 7-2 Opinion Poll, 5 Profound Beauty, 11-2 Sans Frontieres, 6 Kite Wood, 12 Tactic, 14 Joshua Tree, 16 Flying Cross, Pop Rock, 20 Bar.