RACING:Kieren Fallon and Eagle Mountain will have seven opponents to cope with in tomorrow's Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp as the controversial former champion jockey goes in pursuit of a double Group One weekend.
Fallon will be on board the second favourite for the Darley Irish Oaks, Peeping Fawn, at the Curragh on Sunday, where the Aidan O'Brien-trained filly will again lock horns with her Epsom conqueror, Light Shift.
Final declarations for the fourth classic of the season will be made today, and two other Ballydoyle fillies, All My Loving and Uimhir A Haon, are likely to take up the big-race option.
But O'Brien and Fallon will be in Group One action before that as Eagle Mountain is one of eight horses lining up for the mile-and-a-half Bastille Day highlight in Paris tomorrow afternoon.
The star Irish colt, runner-up to Authorized in the Epsom Derby and only third when favourite to Soldier Of Fortune in the Curragh Derby just 12 days ago, will attempt to emulate his stable companion Scorpion, who won the Grand Prix de Paris two years ago.
However, ranged against him will be two of the highest rated three-year-olds in France.
Zambezi Sun, an unlucky fourth in the French Derby, will be joined by the Andre Fabre-trained Airmail Special, who has been supported for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in recent weeks.
Fallon appeared in court in London yesterday where he formally pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud in connection with an alleged plot to fix races.
Along with four other men, including the Derry-born jockey Fergal Lynch, Fallon entered a not guilty plea at a pre-trial hearing.
The court case is scheduled to begin in the High Court in London in late September.
Coolmore's number one jockey has been charged with conspiracy to defraud between December 2002 and September 2004 by interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost races and in the process defraud customers of the internet betting exchange firm Betfair.
With Fallon still suspended from riding in Britain, Seamus Heffernan takes the mount on the O'Brien-trained Theann, who lines up for today's Group Three Summer Stakes at York.
The Irish filly faces 10 opponents in the six-furlong event, where she is drawn in stall number one.
Another Irish filly on her travels is the Group One-placed Supposition, who will continue her career in the US having had her last run for Dermot Weld in last weekend's American Oaks at Hollywood Park in Los Angeles.
Supposition's chance was ruined by a slipped saddle, but she will remain in the States where she will be trained by Juddmonte farm's main American trainer, Bobby Frankel.
"I think she is a type that could do very well over there," said Weld, who produced the filly to win at Galway last year and then be placed third to Miss Beatrix in the Moyglare Stud Stakes.
The star name at Cork this evening will be last season's high-class novice chaser Gemini Lucy, who looks a stand out in the mares handicap hurdle.
Jessica Harrington's star, a wide-margin winner at Fairyhouse before tipping up at the first fence in a Punchestown Grade One, gets her favoured right-handed track and a handicap mark of 92 that is over three-and-a-half stone behind her chase rating.
She should be able to take advantage of it here and secure just a second hurdles victory to add to one at Wexford 15 months ago.
Another high-class jumping mare on show today is Clear Riposte, who runs in the 13-furlong flat handicap at Downpatrick.
Clear Riposte failed to win during her earlier flat career, but is a fine runner over flights now and should relish the drop in class compared to some recent runs at Auteuil.
Excelerate was a good third at the Curragh over six furlongs last time but should relish the seven furlongs, and the forecast better ground, in the opener at Cork.
