Fresh Yeats gearing up for a rare Royal Ascot hat-trick

AIDAN O'BRIEN is gearing up a powerful squad for next week's Royal Ascot extravaganza with the star stayer Yeats on the verge of a little bit of history if he can secure a third Gold Cup triumph in a row on Thursday.

Johnny Murtagh is set to ride the seven-year-old for the first time and ground conditions look like being ideal for Yeats and the rest of a Ballydoyle Group One team which also includes the brilliant double Guineas winner Henrythenavigator.

The going at Ascot is currently good to firm and the authorities there are working to maintain that for the kick off of the five-day festival on Tuesday.

"The track is in great shape and we are pleased with how it is looking. There is a great covering of grass," said the clerk of the course, Chris Stickels, yesterday. "Ideally we would like to produce good to firm for the meeting but with the forecast unsettled it is difficult to predict."

The newly laid straight course tends to ride faster than the old round track but Yeats has won his last two Gold Cups on good to firm going and is rated 5 to 4 with some firms to complete a rare hat-trick.

Only the legendary French stayer Sagaro has previously won three Gold Cups between 1975-77 when partnered by Lester Piggott.

Kieren Fallon was in the saddle when Yeats scored in 2006 while Michael Kinane rode the Ballydoyle star last year when they proved too strong for Geordieland. Yeats has won 11 of his 18 career starts but next week will be the first occasion for Murtagh to team up with the horse who also secured Group One honours last year in the Irish St Leger.

"Johnny has ridden him a few times in his work and knows him quite well," O'Brien said yesterday before explaining the decision to bypass this year's Saval Beg Stakes as an Ascot prep.

"It was a deliberate decision because we feel he may run better fresh. We may be wrong on that but we'll find out next week."

Yeats's sole start this season resulted in a narrow defeat of Red Moloney at Navan in the Vintage Crop Stakes.

Henrythenavigator has been installed a 1 to 2 favourite with Skybet for Tuesday's St James's Palace Stakes in which he is set to meet the French Guineas hero Falco in a clash of this year's mile Classic winners.

Other intended rivals for the Ballydoyle star in the day one feature look like being Henry Cecil's former Derby contender Twice Over as well as Godolphin's Rio De La Plata who did run in last weekend's Epsom Classic when finishing seventh.

O'Brien was the leading trainer at last year's festival with four winners that included Excellent Art's victory in the St James's Place where he led home a Ballydoyle one-two-three.

Other Group One targets for the champion trainer's team this time round include the Prince Of Wales's Stakes where Duke Of Marmalade is a warm favourite to add to wins in the Prix Ganay and the Tattersalls Gold Cup earlier this season.

Both US Ranger and the Greenlands Stakes winner Astronomer Royal are intended runners in the Golden Jubilee Stakes while the ex-Australian star Haradasun is being targeted at the Queen Anne Stakes over a mile.

Haradasun finished behind Creachadoir on his European debut at Newbury in the Lockinge but that Godolphin star was ruled out of the Queen Anne yesterday after sustaining a leg fracture during a work-out. The injury looks like keeping Creachadoir out of action for the rest of the season.

Haradasun's breeder and part owner Frank Tagg said yesterday: "I was very happy with his run in the Lockinge as he got very fresh and agitated before the start, he was interfered with in the race and it was his first start in seven months. The jockey and trainer have got to know him a lot more since."

Paddy Power have installed Haradasun a 7 to 2 favourite for the Queen Anne and Tagg added: "His best form in Australia was at a mile where he won two Group Ones. I think he is very good. On his day in Australia he had an unbelievable turn of foot and he was almost unbeatable. He is pretty exceptional."

This Sunday's home highlight will be the Group Three Kerry Group Noblesse Stakes at Cork for which there are 21 possible runners including a total of eight entries from Ballydoyle.

They are led by Tiffany Diamond, unplaced in last Friday's Epsom Oaks, as well as the highly-rated, once-raced maiden Queen Of The Night.

Possible opposition could come from across-channel as Brian Meehan has three possible runners including Changing Skies who ran third to Sail in last month's Cheshire Oaks.