Aidan O'Brien's hopes of running three horses in the Breeders Cup Juvenile are increasing as he gave an upbeat bulletin yesterday on the chances of the third reserve Bach getting into the race.
A maximum of 14 can race in the $1 million contest with the Dewhurst runner-up Brahms and the Gimcrack winner Mull of Kintyre already qualified. O'Brien's fourth entry Thady Quill will run instead in a $200,000 race on Friday but hopes for the Chesham winner Bach are rising.
"It now looks like Bach may get in and we could have three runners," said O'Brien who also has Warrior Queen for the fillies' juvenile and Stravinsky for the Sprint.
Meanwhile, Ireland's top hunter chaser of the 1990s, Elegant Lord, has been retired. The J P McManus-owned gelding won his last race, the Martell Foxhunters over the fearsome Aintree fences, last April but a leg scan has indicated he would not be up to another full season in training.
He will be retired to McManus's Martinstown Stud in Co Limerick where he will be turned out with the likes of Blitzkreig and the former Irish National winner Bit Of A Skite.
Elegant Lord's finest hour came at the 1996 Cheltenham festival when he won the Foxhunters Chase under trainer Enda Bolger.
Elegant Lord was the horse on which Bolger reached the record total of 402 point-to-point winners at Ballingarry last year.
