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Idaho & Johannes Vermeer Have both been left in both French Juvenile G1 races on Saturday The Criterium Interntional G1 & Criterium St Cloud
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Highland Reel to be kept in training at 4 and may target more Australian Races
Even as Aidan O'Brien attempts to win his first Melbourne Cup with Bondi Beach and Kingfisher on Tuesday, the Irish master trainer is planning his next raid on Australia at The Championships in Sydney next year.
Cox Plate placegetter Highland Reel has been earmarked by O'Brien as a likely contender for the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
"That is in the [northern] spring. Highland Reel ran a good race in the Cox Plate and I think he might be back down there," O'Brien said. "Tom [Magnier] said he might go to Hong Kong and then he might go back down in our spring for your autumn races."
Sydney target: Irish star Highland Reel (left) could be set for The Championships next autumn. Photo: Getty Images
Highland Reel could target the Australian Cup and Queen Elizabeth Stakes before returning for the summer in England and meetings like Royal Ascot.
"We are going through the program because Dad and the lads are keen [to come to Sydney], Aidan's keen," Magnier, who runs the Coolmore operation in Australia, said.
"We are always keen to find the right horses to come down here.
"It is like the Melbourne Cup, when we have the right horses like this year we want to be there."
Racing NSW chairman John Messara said if Highland Reel arrived in Sydney it would add to the international profile of The Championships in only its third year.
"It is gratifying to have a horse like Highland Reel and an operation like Coolmore looking at our Championships," Messara said. "We continued to build and I'm confident that we will have more Japanese and Hong Kong horses next year as well."
The international nature of the Ballydoyle operation, which is based in Tipperary, will have O'Brien at America's Breeders' Cup on the weekend before possibly being in Melbourne for the Cup to see Bondi Beach and Kingfisher.
The Melbourne Cup pair are the workmen of his yard but ask O'Brien about the reason for his Breeders' Cup trip and he is far more expansive.
Gleneagles, a four-time group 1 victor, will not have top billing at the Breeders Cup meeting. That honour will be shared by Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn and Triple Crown hero American Pharoah.
But to O'Brien his Galileo three-year-old, which has won seven from 10, shines. He is set to take on American Pharoah on a surface that is foreign to him, the dirt in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
"We all know what a great horse American Pharoah is. He is incredible really," O'Brien said.
"Gleneagles is an unique horse with the pedigree he has and his race record. His dam is a sister to Giant's Causeway. He is a lot like Giant's Causeway to train.
"He is a very strong traveller and he quickens. He is probably a bit quicker than Giant's Causeway [which was runner-up in a Breeders' Cup Classic]; whether that is a good thing or not for the dirt I'm not sure.
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O'Brien and the Breeders' Cup Classic: is this the year?
Aidan O'Brien might be all-conquering on this side of the Atlantic but there is one major race that keeps on eluding him, as Tony Smurthwaite writes
If it's Breeders' Cup week it must be the Classic, and it must be Aidan O'Brien aiming for a win.
O'Brien has conquered so many peaks, accepted so many trophies, won so many accolades, but the $5 million showdown is the darned varmint which keeps getting away.
Ireland's premier trainer returns to the US this time with Gleneagles, a turf colt in the classic mould, if you will. Brilliant acceleration, head of his peer group, gorgeous pedigree, trained by a genius, no dirt experience.
There may be the small matter of a US triple crown winner in American Pharoah but, to be honest, whatever the home team has thrown at the Classic has never deterred O'Brien.
Not since 2000 when O'Brien's first attempt to win the Classic came close, oh so close. He presided over a defeat for Giant's Causeway which was brutal in its 'what if' qualities. Principally, what if the reins had not slipped from Mick Kinane's hands deep in the home straight as he lost out to Tiznow, by a neck?
The Iron Horse was followed a year later by Galileo, as feted a racehorse in his day as he is a wonderful stallion now (and sire of Gleneagles) but even the winner of the Derby, Irish Derby and King George was beaten, five places behind the doubling up Tiznow as the dirt proved an ask too far.
Another year, another Classic-winning hotpot. George Washington brought an equally alluring CV and while he could not pick up finishing sixth behind Invasor, what was to happen when he returned 12 months later cast a pall over not only O'Brien but all of racing.
The slop of Monmouth claimed George Washington, who had been brought out of retirement for a second shot at immortality. A fatal injury in the home straight as Curlin ran away to win left O'Brien stunned and with a consoling arm around wife Annemarie as she walked away in tears. The official record states coldly DNF, did not finish, yet if O'Brien felt an icy blast there was more agony ahead.
The team returned just 12 months later with another brilliant miler in Henrythenavigator but for whom a twist in the now typical narrative lay in store. The Guineas winner ran his heart out but found one too good; not some US tartar but Britain's Raven's Pass, who had been beaten by Henrythenavigator at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood.
Other defeats followed as neither Rip Van Winkle nor So You Think could muster meaningful challenges.
Maybe the dream had died, maybe O'Brien had called a halt. If any embers of hope were left remaining of a win in the Classic it would have taken a heart of flint not to feel for O'Brien at Breeders' Cup 2013.
Declaration Of War was battle hardened, was fully proven, had been rested, and was over there to live up to his name.
Ridden by trainer's son Joseph, in a less than glorious line up, Declaration Of War was redemption calling. More impressive than Giant's Causeway, O'Brien had said.
Tracked leaders, effort and pressed winner over 1f out, soon hard ridden, kept on under pressure inside final furlong, held near finish
Held near finish. Does it really do justice to a defeat by a nose and a head?
So here we are. Gleneagles has a lot to ignore.
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Victor Espinozas gets acquainted with American Pharoah's future home at Ashford today
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Melbourne Cup 2015: Bondi Beach and Kingfisher worth a trip
to Australia, says Aidan O'Brien
The best indication of the strength of Aidan O'Brien's challenge for this year's Melbourne Cup is that the Irish trainer is preparing to fly 32 hours to be trackside to watch Bondi Beach and Kingfisher at Flemington next Tuesday.
O'Brien will be at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, over the weekend as his favourite horse Gleneagles takes on triple crown winner American Pharoah in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Sunday morning, but he has already made inquiries about getting to Australia.
"It is a possibility. It would be a 32-hour travel but I won't be sure until Friday," O'Brien said.
Progressive galloper: Aidan O'Brien's Bondi Beach from Ireland is in good shape for the Melbourne Cup. Photo: Getty Images
"We have two nice horses down there and we are happy with both of them. We think they are two quality horses."
Ladbrokes have Bondi Beach and Kingfisher in the second tier of chances for the Cup - Bondi Beach is $17 and Kingfisher at $26 - which is a fair way from $4 favourite Fame Game.
The Australian influence on O'Brien, in particular from owner Lloyd Williams, has him keen for success and to be at Flemington.
"It would be unbelievable [to win] but I don't like to think about it that way too much. We know how hard it is to win a Melbourne Cup. We are doing our best to prepare the horses and obviously guided by everybody [around the team]," he said.
Williams taking shares in a group of horses has helped lead to Bondi Beach and Kingfisher racing in the Melbourne Cup.
"I have been talking to him about being here," Williams said. "He has been working on getting Kingfisher here for a long time and Bondi Beach is wonderful chance."
O'Brien hasn't been back to Flemington since the infamous 2008 Melbourne Cup, which produced Bart Cummings' 12th and final winner Viewed. The head of Ballydoyle was questioned by stewards about the tactics of his three runners, which finished near the tail.
"We learnt a little bit more about the race and the horses," O'Brien said about 2008.
Tom Magnier, Coolmore's head of racing in Australia, said the Melbourne Cup had always been at the centre of the conversation and the seven-year itch had got the better of the team.
"We said when we found the right horses we would come back and we were always looking forward to coming back. To be fair to Aidan and the lads, they say they have found the right horses," Magnier said.
O'Brien is measured and concise as he talks about his horses. He has been in constant contact with his team and Williams since they arrived.
"I have known Lloyd for a long time and obviously we admire Lloyd. We talk about horses and training and different types of horses. He is a very wise man," O'Brien said.
"His knowledge of preparing a horse, the things to do and not to do, and what you need down there is important."
O'Brien returns to the Melbourne Cup with the confidence from the past two Cox Plates, winning with Adelaide last year and the brave third of Highland Reel to Winx last Saturday. He has had five Melbourne Cup runners and Mahler, which was a three-year-old like Bondi Beach, was his best result when third to Efficient in 2007.
Bondi Beach has had only five starts for two wins and three seconds. It is a career that only began at Leopardstown in May and his most recent outing was a controversial runner-up finish in the English St Leger. It was where Mahler had his last run before his Melbourne Cup.
"Bondi Beach is a relatively inexperienced horse but we think he is a very progressive horse," the trainer said.
"He is a good traveller, a strong colt, a hardy horse and he has been very good in all of his starts. He is a colt who tries hard, he is very competitive."
Kingfisher is a year older but carries a significant form reference of being second in Trip To Paris' Ascot Gold Cup, when he was badly held up for much of the straight. He was also second to Australia in last year's Irish Derby.
Trip To Paris franked the form in Australia when he beat all but Mongolian Khan in the Caulfield Cup, which was another pointer to the chances of Kingfisher, which O'Brien believes will relish the Australian conditions.
"Kingfisher loves fast ground," O'Brien said. "We felt he would like the conditions in Melbourne. We think he is a very nice horse and we were delighted with him at Ascot."
These horses were identified as possible Melbourne Cup types at the beginning of the year. It is a long progress to get to Melbourne and then the travel can its toll as did on Kingfisher.
"Kingfisher didn't have a straight-forward trip to Melbourne," O'Brien conceded.
"Bondi Beach travelled better than Kingfisher but everything has come right in the last few days.
"Kingfisher's blood and everything is good and the lads in Melbourne have done a great job with both horses. They are going good now."
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Gleneagles: the son of Galileo will join his sire at stud next year
PICTURE: Martin Lynch (racingpost.com/photos)Gleneagles to stand at Coolmore HQ in 2016
BY BLOODSTOCK WORLD STAFF7:00AM 28 OCT 2015
DUAL Guineas winner and Royal Ascot hero Gleneagles will join his sire Galileo at Coolmore’s Fethard base in 2016.
The three-year-colt – who will bid to bow out in a blaze of glory in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic – has served as Ballydoyle’s leading light this season, adding his two Guineas and a victory in the St James’s Palace Stakes to a win in the Curragh’s Vincent O’Brien National Stakes last year.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Gleneagles also finished first past the post in last year’s Jean-Luc Lagardere but was demoted due to interference.
He was last seen when sixth of nine in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Qipco Champions Day.
Speaking before flying out to watch his new addition at Keeneland, Coolmore director of sales David O’Loughlin said: “In my view he’s the best stallion prospect in the world retiring this season. He has a high-class pedigree and high-class performances.
“He was champion two-year-old, won stallion-making races in the 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes, and he’s out of a sister to Giant’s Causeway, a champion sire.
“He’s got the speed everybody wants – plus he’s by Galileo, and very like his sire.”
Gleneagles is the second foal out of You’resothrilling, a daughter of Storm Cat who won the Cherry Hinton Stakes for O’Brien. Her first foal Marvellous won last year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas, while her third foal – the auspiciously-named Coolmore – earned her own Classic claims when landing the Group 3 Weld Stakes. She was last seen when fourth to stablemate Minding in the Fillies’ Mile.
Gleneagles will be making his first start on dirt on Saturday. Giant’s Causeway finished second in the Classic 15 years ago, while his dam Mariah’s Storm won multiple Graded races on the surface.
Galileo, who finished sixth in the Classic on his final start, has sired three Breeders’ Cup winners – all on turf.
A fee for Gleneagles has yet to be announced.
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Can Aidan add to his Breeders Cup Tally this weekend
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Bank on Alice (Pictures David Betts Photography)
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How the Curragh will look in 2018 after a €65 million redevelopment
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Coolmore Raised & Grazed
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Look who has made himself very at home at Keeneland Classic Contender GLENEAGLES
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Twitter Poll Result thanks for Voting.
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Breeders Cup Draws - Ryan Moore rides Everyone apart from Shogun Heff takes that ride
Breeders Cup Classic Gleneagles Drawn 5
Breeders Cup Fillies Juvenile Turf Alice Springs Drawn 3
Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf Shogun Drawn 4 Hit It A Bomb Drawn 14
Breeders Cup Dirt Mile War Envoy Drawn 7
Breeders Cup Juvenile Dirt Waterloo Bridge Drawn 14
Breeders Cup Turf Found Drawn 9
Gleneagles drawn beside Pharoah in Classic
American Pharoah winning at Belmont
(Healy Racing Photos) Gleneagles will break from stall five in the Breeders' Cup Classic on the dirt at Keeneland on Saturday.The dual 2000 Guineas and Royal Ascot winner, trained by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, was last seen finishing sixth behind Solow in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on ground that was considered too testing.
Ballydoyle's prized asset will be up against an awesome foe in American Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who has been draw in stall four in the 10-runner field.
Other solid rivals to Gleneagles include Beholder (stall 10), Tonalist (one) and Honor Code (nine).
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Prospector tops opening day at Tattersalls
Prospector winning at Leopardstown
(Healy Racing Photos) The Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale got off to a positive start on the opening day with a wide representation of International buyers.Seven lots topped six-figures and the top lot made 240,000 guineas. A total of 228 lots were sold for 5,105,000 guineas, at an average of 22,390 guineas and a median of 12,000 guineas.
The top lot on the first day of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale was secured by a single bid when Grant Pritchard-Gordon started and ended the bidding for the three-year-old colt, PROSPECTOR, at 240,000 guineas.
The son of GALILEO, catalogued as Lot 289, is a half-brother to MASTERCRAFTSMAN and a winner of two races from three starts for trainer Aidan O'Brien.
Grant Pritchard-Gordon of Badgers Bloodstock said:
"He has been bought for an Australian client and it is a successful tactic that they have used and were keen to use again. Prospector is beautifully bred and is a half-brother to a much under-rated stallion in Mastercraftsman.
"He has a good profile and will improve with time. He is unlikely to run in Europe again and will ship when ready."
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Leading Sires Tables Updated Zoffany Crushes 1st season rivals Galileo on verge of Champion Sire Of Europe. Galileo Champ in GB&IRE
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Coolmore buys a half share in Danehill Stakes winner Kinglike
Imposing: Coolmore has paid a seven-figure sum for a half share in David Moodie's colt Kinglike. Photo: Vince Caligiuri
Coolmore's Tom Magnier said his team had identified Kinglike as the type of horse with group 1 potential and was delighted to be able to take a share in him. "We get to share him in a partnership with David with a horse that is already a group 2 winner and hope that he can have further success on the track," Magnier said. "He has the right profile to have chance [at stud] as along as he lives up to what we think about him on the track."
Moodie would not reveal the details of the deal, other than to say it was seven figures. Kinglike has won two of his four starts and was brilliant in his only look at the straight when he won the Danehill Stakes first-up at Flemington in September. Both of his defeats have come at Caulfield, where he is trained by Peter Moody, and they were similar. After winning the Danehill, Kinglike took on the older horses in the Caulfield Sprint and struggled into sixth after being trapped wide without cover and hanging off the track on the turn.
"He just tried to get off the track on the turn I don't know if it is because he works out wide there in the morning where they have the course proper for gallops," Moodie said. "He is still learning to race but the natural ability is there. However, he hasn't come against anything like what he will on Saturday."
Exosphere is unbeaten as a three-year-old and his commanding Golden Rose victory was followed by a recording-breaking win in the Roman Consul Stakes. "He looks the real deal but that's what a race like the Coolmore is about, getting these good colts together," Moodie said. "We are a winner down the straight already and he went very well that day and we are there to give him a race."
Kinglike was opened by TAB at $14 in its all-in market for the Coolmore Stud Stakes, which has Exosphere as a $1.40 favourite. The quinella from the Blue Sapphire at Caulfield, Keen Array and Mogador, are on the second line of betting at $8. Hellbent and Japonisme are on the next line of betting at $11. Hellbent lost his unbeaten status in the Brian Crowley Stakes at Randwick last start but will still be given his chance in the group 1. He will have a look at the Flemington straight during breakfast with the stars on Tuesday.
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Breeders Cup Memories
Fantastic Picture of Aidan & Joseph celebrating High Chaparrals Breeders Cup Turf win
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Tattersalls Horses in training Sale Updates
Sandro Botticelli sells for 14,000 GNS to John Ryan
Prospector sells for 240,000 GNS to Badgers Bloodstaock
Goodwill was withdrawn
Giant Redwood sells for 25,000 GNS to Tom Malone
Eisenhower sells for 60,000 GNS to Jason T
St Patricks Day Sells for 10,000 GNS to J Jenkins
Gran Paradiso sells for 30,000 GNS to Highflyer Bloodstock
Los Barbados Sells for 47,000 GNS to Oliver St Lawrence
Imperial Palace Sells for 16,000 GNS to Guy Stephenson
Archangel Raphael Sells for 45,000 GNS to Amanda Perrett
US Navy Seal Sells for 14,000 GNS to J Jenkins
Battle Of Marathon Sells for 23,000 GNS to John Ryan
The Warrior sells for 22,000 GNS to Amanda Perrett
Latin Quarter Sells for 15,000 GNS to Oliver St Lawrence
Jacobean sells for 10,000 GNS to Issa Shaban
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Breeders Cup Draws
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Air force Blue European Champion