RACING/CHAMPIONS DAY: AIDAN O'BRIEN will hope switching the Qipco Champion Stakes from Newmarket to Ascot this Saturday will help bring him a change of luck in the Group One event and he has kept open the option of running both So You Think and Await The Dawn in the "Champions Day" highlight.
The two Ballydoyle horses, along with a prospective pacemaker Windsor Palace, were among the 17 entries left in the 10- furlong race and So You Think has been installed a 9 to 4 favourite by ante-post bookmakers.
The Champion is one of just four Group One events on the British racing calendar that O’Brien has yet to win in his glittering career. The others are the Falmouth Stakes, the Haydock Sprint Cup and the Cheveley Park Stakes.
Ireland’s champion trainer is also set to target the Group Three Long Distance Cup on Saturday with his Gold Cup hero Fame And Glory who is on a retrieval mission after a lacklustre effort in the Irish Leger last month.
However, Await The Dawn could complete an even more remarkable comeback at the weekend as O’Brien has revealed how the Hardwicke Stakes winner was so sick after his Juddmonte International appearance in August that he almost died. Both he and So You Think are in contention to appear in both the Champion and in next month’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
“You wouldn’t believe how well Await The Dawn has come along as he nearly died 48 hours after his run at York,” O’Brien reported after confirming that final running plans for the Champion Stakes won’t be taken until closer to the weekend.
Also left in the Champion Stakes are the Henry Cecil pair, Midday and Twice Over, while Snow Fairy, third in the Arc, is among the 17 too, as is the French Derby winner Reliable Man and the King George winner Nathaniel.
Jim Bolger, a Champion winner with New Approach in 2008, has kept open the option of running his consistent filly Banimpire, winner of the Ribblesdale on the track in June.
Frankel dominates an entry of 10 for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes which will be the centrepiece of the entire card while Johnny Murtagh will be reunited with the Oaks winner Dancing Rain in the Fillies Mares Stakes.
Cooper charge ready
FORPADYDEPLASTERER will make his long-awaited return to action at Punchestown on Thursday. The 2009 Arkle winner at Cheltenham hasn’t raced since being pulled up in the King George VI Chase at Kempton last January, after which he returned to Tom Cooper’s yard in Co Kerry a sick horse, writes Brian O’Connor.
He is set to make his return to action in the Star Chase at Punchestown over a just a furlong short of three miles. “Everything is fine with him and all going well he’ll run on Thursday. We’ll see how he gets on over the trip, but I think he’ll be fine with it,” Cooper said yesterday. “He’s in good form and he’ll improve for the run. I think he’s fit enough to do himself justice – I wouldn’t be running him otherwise.”
