Aidan O’Brien to bid for glory Down Under with Highland Reel

Aidan O’Brien looks set to have a major presence in Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster but Ryan Moore will be on Ballydoyle duty on the other side of the world where Highland Reel will line up in the William Hill Cox Plate at the Moonee Valley track in Melbourne.

Moore and O’Brien teamed up to win Australia’s most coveted all-aged middle distance prize with Adelaide in 2014 and Highland Reel boasts a similar profile having secured Grade One success in Arlington’s Secretariat Stakes last August.

After a fine effort behind Golden Horn in last month’s Irish Champion Stakes, Highland Reel is a marginal favourite in some ante-post betting lists Down Under with the final make up of the field likely to be confirmed today.

Others of European interest will include Peter Chapple-Hyam’s Sussex Stakes runner-up Arod and the French challenger Gailo Chop while the home team will include last year’s runner-up Fawkner who is owned by Lloyd Williams.

Rates highly

The Australian businessman bought into O’Brien’s Melbourne Cup hopes Bondi Beach and Kingfisher last month but has revealed to local media he failed to secure Highland Reel who he rates highly ahead of this weekend’s race.

“In my opinion (Highland Reel) is a better horse than Adelaide. I’ve been in Europe for three months this year and I know that camp pretty well. He’s a horse I would have liked to have bought,” Williams said.

“I tried very hard to buy him before he won the Secretariat Stakes. I couldn’t get the deal done – and nearly did. But I actually think the Champion Stakes run was more impressive than the Secretariat because that was a high class race in Ireland,” he added.

Aidan O’Brien can pick from half the ten entries left in the Racing Post Trophy as he pursues an eighth win in the race and further closes in on a landmark 250 top-flight successes during his illustrious career.

The champion trainer is currently on 245 Group One wins and he can pick from a handful of Doncaster options, including the Beresford winner Port Douglas, the Group Three winner Johannes Vermeer and the impressive recent Curragh maiden scorer, Black Sea.

The Royal Lodge winner Foundation heads a home team that also includes Arod’s stable companion, Marcel, who could attempt to give Peter Chapple-Hyam a second win in the race after Authorized in 2006.

Dermot Weld has indicated his Champion Stakes hero Fascinating Rock will race as a five year old in 2016 and the trainer expects the colt to improve further.

“He’s a huge horse and much better now than he was at three and he’s one to look forward to for the future,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to have had a number of five year olds who got better with age and I see no reason why he won’t.”

In other news Horse Racing Ireland has confirmed Fairyhouse will next month host the first all-female jockey steeplechase run in Ireland.

Five years

Both Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh have won the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse in the last five years and have confirmed they will take part in the Today FM Ladies Chase in aid of the Marie Keating Foundation.

“This is an historic occasion as it will be the first time a chase run under the rules of Irish National Hunt racing is confined to lady riders,” said Carberry. “The standard is very high in Ireland.”