RACING NEWS ROUND-UP:AIDAN O'BRIEN has revealed the Dewhurst Stakes runner-up, Roderic O'Connor, is the most likely of his three entries to start in Sunday's Group One Criterium International at Saint-Cloud.
The Ballydoyle trainer also has the Navan maiden winners Recital and Exodus in the €250,000 mile event which he has won twice before with Mount Nelson (2006) and Jan Vermeer last year.
Roderic O’Connor found only Frankel too good for him in the Dewhurst on his last start but could attempt to secure Group One honours at the Paris track.
“He seems fine since Newmarket. You’re never sure but I don’t think the mile will bother him,” O’Brien said yesterday.
“He is the most possible of ours to run. Recital is a possible for Leopardstown on Sunday (Eyrefield Stakes) but we haven’t decided things yet.”
Roderic O’Connor is currently as low as 10 to 1 joint-second favourite in ante-post betting for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.
A total of 12 entries currently remain in the Criterium International which has a history of throwing up top-class horses such as Dalakhani (2002) and Bago (2003.)
They include Freddie Head’s Salto, Rerouted from Barry Hills’s yard and French Navy who André Fabre prepares for Godolphin.
Twenty entries remain in the Group Three Prix Perth on the same Saint-Cloud card including O’Brien’s Devoted To You, John Oxx’s Keredari and Famous Name who bounced back to form with a bang at Leopardstown on Monday.
Dermot Weld’s hopes for rain to soften the Flemington surface ahead of Tuesday morning’s Melbourne Cup look like being granted but his old ally, Michael Kinane, doubts whether the sole Irish hope Profound Beauty will be able to last out the two-mile trip in the €4.2 million highlight.
Kinane partnered Weld’s Vintage Crop to break the Melbourne Cup mould forever in 1993 and is currently back in Australia for “the race that stops a nation”. However, the legendary rider, who retired last year, is not convinced Profound Beauty has it in her to become Weld’s third Cup winner.
“I question her ability to go 3-2 (3,200 metres.) I think that a mile and six is right on the limit for her,” Kinane told local reporters in Melbourne.
Profound Beauty ran fifth in the Cup two years ago but Kinane added: “When you saw her here a couple of years ago nothing travelled better than her. She is a beautiful filly but I question her being able to get it because this year’s a much stronger race.
“Her running style hasn’t changed much from two years ago. I know she’s more mature and a better mare but her form says two miles is still beyond her. She will loom up and run a big race but I question whether she will get the trip.”
More encouraging for the Weld team is reports of rain on Friday and Saturday which could significantly soften a track that is already the subject of some controversy. A problem with beetles last May has seen damage to the grass roots system, causing the surface to be loose.
“It’s unfortunately in very bad condition,” said local trainer, Danny O’Brien. “It could be a hard week for all horses and the forecast rain won’t help.”
The Flemington manager, Mick Goodie, responded: “If we get a real stinking day of wet weather it will cause issues because there will be damage. But all things being equal, I expect the track to perform well.”
Australia’s middle distance star, So You Think, will trial for the Cup on Saturday in the MacKinnnon Stakes but he has been on the slide in ante-post betting for the two-mile race next week and has been replaced as Cup favourite by last year’s winner Shocking.
