Yeats heads strong O'Brien squad

Last year's Coronation Cup hero Yeats could lead a powerful squad of up to nine horses from the Aidan O'Brien stable at next week's Royal Ascot festival.

On the back of the Epsom Derby meeting earlier this month, which mixed both triumph and tragedy for the Irish champion trainer, O'Brien is putting the finishing touches to his team for the first royal meeting at the newly developed track.

The marathon Ascot Gold Cup over two and a half miles is a rare Group One blank for the Ballydoyle team in Britain but Yeats is being lined up for a shot at next Thursday's prestigious prize where Dermot Weld's former Melbourne Cup winner, Media Puzzle, is another likely Irish challenger.

It will be the first time that Yeats has travelled over further than a mile and six furlongs, the distance at which he was placed in last year's Irish Leger.

The one-time favourite for the 2004 Epsom Derby will be the sole Ballydoyle challenger on the third day but Tuesday's opening session will see a strong raid with Ivan Denisovich hoping to follow in the footsteps of past O'Brien winners, Black Minnaloushe (2001) and Rock Of Gibraltar (2002), in the St James's Palace Stakes.

The other Group One prize over a mile that day, the Queen Anne Stakes, will include the former Middle Park winner Ad Valorem while the recently impressive Holy Roman Emperor is the likely O'Brien representative in the big juvenile prize, the Coventry Stakes.

Marcus Andronicus, runner-up to Aussie Rules in the French 2,000 Guineas, will be the Ballydoyle hope in the Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs on Wednesday and the consistent Ace, who threw away his chance in the Coronation Cup at Epsom by sweating up, is set to tackle David Junior and Electrocutionist in the Group One Prince Of Wales Stakes.

O'Brien will give the Galileo colt Fire And Rain his first run of 2006 in the King Edward VII Stakes over a mile and a half on Friday. Fire And Rain won his sole start to date in a maiden at Newmarket last September and had been prominent in some ante-post betting lists for the classics in the spring.

He will be joined on the Friday by both Road To Mandalay in the Queens Vase over two miles and Race For The Stars, fourth in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, who will try to turn around a 10-length deficit on the Dermot Weld-trained classic winner Nightime in the Group One Coronation Stakes for fillies.

Before Ascot, however, there looks set to be some considerable Irish interest in Paris on Saturday where Willie Mullins will try to secure a third success in four years in the French Champion Hurdle at Auteuil.

Mullins has left the Kerry National winner Euro Leader in the Grande Course De Haies D'Auteuil, a race he won in 2003 with Nobody Told Me and Rule Supreme the following year.

Euro Leader is one of 10 remaining in the race after yesterday's forfeit stage and they also include the Eric McNamara-trained course winner Strangely Brown.

Also in the race is the Grande Steeple-Chase de Paris winner Princesse D'Anjou who will try and complete the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double and last year's winner Lycaon De Vauzelle. Mullins has also left the trio of Mister Hight, Clear Riposte and Quatre Heures in the French version of the Triumph Hurdle, the Prix Alain Du Breil, run on the same day.

Such Grade One aspirations are unlikely among the runners at tonight's Clonmel fixture but it will be interesting to see how Marfinca does on his third start over fences in the Beginners Chase.

The ex-Kevin Prendergast-trained horse won the sole race of his career to date when beating King Jock in a two-year-old maiden up the Curragh three years ago. However, there has been some promise in his two chase runs, including a fifth to Gemini Lucy at Punchestown, and he could go close in today's company.

Séamus Heffernan's mount Piltown is raised three furlongs from when third to Zacharova at Leopardstown but that shouldn't be a problem in the handicap while Define is hard to get away from in the claimer.