RACING: The presidential horse Cairdeas hit the Group Three spot at the Curragh with a six-length defeat of Yeats yesterday but after their stupendous Guineas weekend even the loss of the latter's unbeaten record couldn't diminish the spring in the collective Ballydoyle step.
Instead the focus was relentlessly forward with a raid planned on Chester this week that could yet reveal a colt to continue Aidan O'Brien's classic splurge in the Epsom Derby.
O'Brien confirmed that Almighty will run in Thursday's Group Three Chester Vase but the real Epsom focus is likely to come on Friday when Gypsy King has his first start of the season in the Group Three Dee Stakes.
"He is a nice horse but he will need the run. We just got held up with him and you can't go quick trying to get work into them. Whether he is forward enough or not we will find out at Chester," O'Brien said yesterday.
Saturday's Guineas hero Footstepsinthesand cantered yesterday morning and significantly O'Brien didn't rule him, or Sunday's 1,000 winner Virginia Waters, out of the equivalent Guineas races at the Curragh in three weeks' time.
"It's possible but we will have to sit down and discuss everything first before anything is decided," he said.
Ballydoyle's Chester team will also include Coconut Beach in tomorrow's Chester Cup, Solskjaer in Thursday's Group Huxley Stakes, and Acropolis in Friday's Group Three Ormonde Stakes.
As for Yeats, the Coronation Cup is a likely target next month and judged by the way he was blowing after yesterday's High Chaparral Mooresbridge Stakes he will strip a much fitter horse at Epsom.
Cairdeas proved too much for him yesterday and in the process carried the President's colours to their first Curragh victory since Giolla Mear won the 1968 St Leger.
"It's very pleasing for the President to win this and I thought Pat Smullen gave him a great ride," said the winner's trainer Dermot Weld.
Torrential rain had turned the ground officially heavy after the first race and O'Brien and Kieren Fallon were prepared to forgive Yeats.
"That ground and a 7lb penalty was tough for him and he just got tired. He's having a right blow and he will love a bit of better ground. You saw at Newmarket what happened when the horses stepped onto fast going. It was like shock treatment to them," said O'Brien.
In contrast soft ground is just what Indesatchel needs to get buzzing and the David Wachman-trained colt made it three from three this season with a sauntering six-length defeat of Emerald Cat in the Group Three Tetrarch Stakes.
Wachman said that Faint Heart will run in tomorrow's Cheshire Oaks and Damson will be aimed at the Irish 1,000 Guineas if possible. "If you rush them back after they've been sick it can do more harm than good and there are plenty other options at Ascot and in America," he said.
Mick Channon's raider Ba Foxtrot fought back after being headed to short head Waterways in the juvenile conditions race and after the highly-touted Bonanza was taken out of the concluding maiden because of the ground, the Weld-Smullen team completed a double when Caheerloch made a winning debut.
