Beauty takes first step for Aussie trip

RACING NEWS:DERMOT WELD has kept alive his chances of a third Melbourne Cup triumph by putting the high-class mare Profound Beauty into quarantine ahead of a possible trip down under for Australia's most famous race.

Profound Beauty, a 16 to 1 shot with Ladbrokes for Flemington on November 2nd, entered quarantine at the Curragh yesterday but her stable companion Rite Of Passage didn’t and instead of Australia, the Ascot Gold Cup winner is likely to be kept for a National Hunt campaign this winter.

“Rite Of Passage is well and I’m very happy with him but he doesn’t go to Australia. We are looking at a National Hunt campaign instead and the Champion Hurdle is definitely on my mind,” Weld said yesterday.

Rite Of Passage finished third to Peddlers Cross in the Neptune Hurdle at Cheltenham last March and is currently a general 16 to 1 shot in bookmakers who are quoting him for hurdling’s championship over two miles.

However, Weld faces a more short-term decision on Profound Beauty, who could yet attempt to follow in the footsteps of Media Puzzle (2002) and Vintage Crop (1993), who provided the Curragh trainer with famous triumphs in the “race that stops a nation”.

Profound Beauty herself ran fifth in the Melbourne Cup two years ago but was ruled out of a follow-up attempt last year. Concerns have already been raised about the possibility of fast ground at Flemington and Weld is holding out on a final decision on whether or not his mare will travel next month.

“We will decide in a couple of weeks. I want to see how she is and how she’s training. But Profound Beauty has gone into quarantine today,” he added.

Weld has already indicated Woobine’s Canadian International next month could be an alternative engagement for Profound Beauty and has pointed out to the authorities in Victoria that the Canadian track pays costs for international visitors.

The trainer is likely to be represented at the Canadian International meeting on October 16th anyway as the Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine, Bethrah, is being lined up for a tilt at the Grade One EP Taylor Stakes over 10 furlongs.

The winner of the $1 million (€746,000) event in Toronto earns automatic entry into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs the following month and Bethrah will attempt to become the first Irish-trained winner of the EP Taylor since John Oxx’s Timarida 15 years ago.

Weld’s star five-year-old Famous Name was in Toronto on Sunday but could finish only seventh in the Woodbine Mile and the trainer said: “He will be back home tomorrow and we’ll see how he is. There are no plans at the moment.”

Ground conditions at the Curragh ahead of Sunday’s Juddmonte Beresford Stakes meeting eased yesterday due to 6.5mms of rain which turned the going soft on the straight track and yielding to soft on the round.

The €10,000 supplementary entry Casamento remains an intended starter in the Beresford, however, and trainer Michael Halford is unconcerned about the possibility of soft conditions. “He is versatile enough on any ground but he handles an ease well,” he said of the colt who failed by only a head to peg back Pathfork in the Group One National Stakes on his previous start.

“A lack of experience might have cost him on the day and I wouldn’t swap him for any of them,” he said. “This race is right beside us on the Curragh so there will be no travelling involved and it looks a lovely opportunity. He’ll come on from his last start and he’s in super form.”