RACING:BRITAIN'S "CHAMPIONS Day" turned into an Irish benefit with four winners last weekend and Ireland's international racing influence is set to go truly global over the next couple of weeks.
Aidan O’Brien is planning to send his QEII winner, Excelebration, to Santa Anita for next week’s Breeders’ Cup Mile where the triple Group One winner is likely to head a strong Ballydoyle team at America’s most lucrative fixture.
St Nicholas Abbey is currently only headed by the top US turf performer Point Of Entry in ante-post betting for the mile-and-a-half turf event which the Irish star won in dramatic style in Kentucky last year.
Up also figures in ante-post betting for the Filly and Mare event while both Lines Of Battle and Infanta Branca have been mentioned by the champion trainer as being among possible challengers in the juvenile events.
Dermot Weld was another in superb form at Ascot, with a valuable double courtesy of Sapphire and Rite Of Passage. The Curragh trainer is now in pursuit of a third Melbourne Cup courtesy of Galileo’s Choice who hasn’t been making headlines down under ahead of Tuesday week’s Flemington feature but continues to make satisfactory progress in his attempt to follow in the hoof-prints of Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle.
Ruled out of Flemington in 2011 due to entry condition issues, Galileo’s Choice was hit by a bout of travel sickness on the long journey to Australia earlier in the month but is now starting to thrive in his stay at the other side of the world.
Based alongside the other international challengers at the Werribee training centre near Melbourne, the Irish hope is impressing but without drawing too much attention in the build-up to Australia’s most famous sporting event, unlike the last two French winners, Americain and Dunaden. “Americain is a gorgeous horse. If you had to pick one from Werribee, the Americain has the looks. But looks don’t mean everything, it is performance. Galileo’s Choice is unbeaten in his last four races on the flat,” said Weld’s representative Tom Daly to local media at the weekend after a workout at Geelong racecourse.
Galileo’s Choice is 14 to 1 with Ladbrokes for the Cup and Weld is planning to go straight for the big race in the style of Vintage Crop rather than take in a trial as Media Puzzle did a decade ago. “Look at all his form,” Daly added. “He runs well fresh. We will do another one or two strong pieces of work. He is going super.”
Other Irish interest in the Cup rests with Colm O’Donoghue who rode the Marco Botti-trained Jakkalberry when unplaced in last weekend’s Caulfield Cup behind Dunaden. However, Botti is confident of a better show in a fortnight’s time and pointed out yesterday that his horse was only beaten just over six lengths. “He has come out of the Caulfield Cup well. I would say he needed the run. There had been a long gap since he won the American St Leger,” said Botti.
“He’s quite a robust horse and takes a lot of work. We didn’t really want to hammer him for the Caulfield Cup so he should come on quite a lot and perhaps the track at Melbourne might suit him better than Caulfied.”
