Ireland's champion jockey-elect Pat Smullen will make his return to action on board last year's Irish Derby-winner Grey Swallow in Sunday night's Canadian International in Toronto. The Dermot Weld-trained colt will fly the Irish flag along with Aidan O'Brien's Yeats at the famous Woodbine course, but for Smullen it will be a bittersweet moment.
It's just over a week since his father, Paddy, passed away after a lengthy illness and in the circumstances the 10-day suspension he picked up at the Listowel festival, which ended on Sunday, became irrelevant to the rider.
"My mother always says things happen for a reason and although normally watching other people win on my horses would be torture, I don't think I even watched a race during that time.
"Instead I had the chance to spend a lot of time with my father and it's at times like that that you realise there is an awful lot more to life than horse racing," Smullen said yesterday.
The jockey has never ridden at Woodbine before, but he will leave for Canada tomorrow in order to ride work at the track and he will also be able to secure some valuable local knowledge from his brother, Seán, who is based in Toronto and helps manage the bloodstock interests of the powerful owner Frank Stronach.
"He has told me that the weather is becoming quite broken over there. It usually does at this time of the year and if there is some cut in the ground that will be good for Grey Swallow," Smullen said. "I'm anxious to get over there and ride some work so I can get the feel of the place."
Saoire, the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner, trained by Smullen's wife Frances Crowley, had been targeted at the EP Taylor Stakes on the same card at Woodbine but that plan has been scrapped.
Instead, after Canada, Smullen's international focus will switch to Australia on November 1st where Vinnie Roe is an intended runner in the Melbourne Cup.
He can do that safe in the knowledge that the third jockeys' title of his career looks to be safely in the bag.
Despite the 10-day ban from Listowel, Smullen's winner total of 66 is still 12 clear of Kieren Fallon with the Flat season starting to slowly grind to a finish.
Fallon will also be in Canada for the ride on Yeats and will travel there on the back of another Group One assignment at Doncaster on Saturday where Aidan O'Brien is going all out to win another Racing Post Trophy. The Ballydoyle trainer has won Britain's final Group One of the season four times including with the subsequent double Derby-winner High Chaparral in 2001.
This time O'Brien has left in the likes of the Beresford-winner, Septimus, the Middle Park-fourth Ivan Denisovich, and Dylan Thomas but said yesterday: "They are all possibles but we won't decide until later in the week."
Yeats is already in Canada as he tries to emulate O'Brien's previous winner of the Woodbine feature, Ballingarry in 2001.
"He seems to be fine and it will be possible for Kieren to take in both races. Yeats usually handles an ease in the ground and it will be interesting to see what it rides like," O'Brien added.
Other Irish interest at Woodbine will come from Michael Kinane who will travel for the International in order to ride the Italian star Electrocutionist who won the Juddmonte at York in August.
Both Kinane and Fallon will also be in action at the Breeders' Cup in New York just six days later and the way has been opened for Fallon to take in the $4 million Classic on dirt on board Saturday's Champion Stakes fourth Oratorio.
"We entered Oratorio for the Classic today. It is his only Breeders' Cup entry and it's possible he might go," said O'Brien. "Obviously he has never run on dirt before and if he does go we can only hope he will act on the surface."
Oratorio drifted in the Classic betting to 14 to 1 after his run at Newmarket over the weekend and it is the Australian-owned Starcraft, winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Prix du Moulin in Europe this year, who is the shorter priced of the potential raiding party to New York.
