Aidan O’Brien sent Capri out to win his 4-year-old debut Friday at Naas, and on Saturday at Leopardstown, O’Brien will take the bubble wrap off some of his best 3-year-old prospects for this year. The going at Leopardstown is forecast to be heavy Saturday, and the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes is heavy on O’Brien-trained sophomores, three of whom are part of a five-runner field. Leading that trio is The Pentagon, a general second choice at 7-1 with English bookmakers to win the Epsom Derby. Favored in antepost betting for the Derby is another O’Brien charge, Saxon Warrior, who doubles as the favorite for the English 2000 Guineas on the first Saturday in May. The Pentagon is expected to be better suited to races longer than the Guineas' one-mile trip and starts his campaign Saturday going 1 1/4 miles. By Galileo out of the Unfuwain mare Vadawina, a Group 1 winner whose best runner before The Pentagon was Vadamar, a solid 12-furlong horse, The Pentagon on Saturday will be ridden for the second time by Ryan Moore, who was aboard for The Pentagon’s win in the Group 3 Tyros Stakes over the Leopardstown course last year. Moore road Saxon Warrior to victory in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy Stakes, where The Pentagon finished third in his 2-year-old finale. How The Pentagon might act on the sodden turf is uncertain since his poorest race among four came in his only soft-going start. The Pentagon’s stablemate Nelson had an encouraging 2-year-old campaign himself that concluded with a close second to talented Roaring Lion in the Group 2 Royal Lodge over a mile. O’Brien’s third runner is Delano Roosevelt, who was beaten by Nelson and Saxon Warrior in 2-year-old stakes last season but could turn out to be a good horse in his own right. Two races earlier on the Leopardstown card, O’Brien has four more entrants – I Can Fly, Actress, Butterscotch, and Sarrocchi – for the Group 3 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. For good measure, his son Joseph O’Brien saddles two of his own runners here, Ship of Dreams and Damselfly. I Can Fly is Moore’s mount and a 20-1 shot for the English 1000 Guineas as well as the Epsom Oaks. Group 3-placed in two starts at 2, I Can Fly doesn’t have the résumé of a horse like The Pentagon and is a shakier, milder favorite in the Guineas Trial. Butterscotch is more exposed than I Can Fly, while Actress looks like she’ll struggle to see out this race’s seven furlongs on laboring ground. Sarrocchi holds some interest. She raced only once at age 2, easily beating 15 maidens over yielding ground at Leopardstown in late October. On Friday, Capri was saved by the wire in the Alleged, holding off Cannonball by a head in a race that could’ve been timed by sundial. So slow was the ground at Naas that it took Capri 2:27.13 to cover 1 1/4 miles, but the powerful gray 4-year-old kicked off his 2018 season on a winning note nonetheless. Capri won the Irish Derby and the English St. Leger last year, which were fine accomplishments, but by year’s end he didn’t appear to be in the same class as leading 3-year-olds Enable and Cracksman. O’Brien said earlier this week that Capri would improve off this race, and there’s no reason not to believe that true. Also on Friday at Naas, 4-year-old Psychedelic Funk won the Group 3 Gladness Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths. Classic preps in France The 3-year-old action also is heating up in France this weekend, with Sands of Mali scoring a narrow win Friday in the Group 3 Prix Sigy at Chantilly, and three Classic trials scheduled for Sunday at Longchamp. Sands of Mali, who was a non-factor in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, won the six-furlong Prix Sigy by the neck while making his season’s debut for trainer Richard Fahey, and the thinking goes that his best distance might well be something less than one mile. Sunday’s stakes at Longchamp, however, include many horses whose connections have designs on Guineas or Derbies at some point somewhere in Europe this spring. First up is the Group 3 Prix de Fountainebleau for colts over one mile, and though the race lured only five entrants, it is packed with talent. Olmedo ranked among France’s best 2-year-olds in 2017 when he won his debut, was nipped in a Group 3, and finished his year with a second behind the top filly Happily in the Group 1 Grand Criterium. The O’Brien-trained Rostropovich won the Group 2 Futurity last fall in Ireland, while Godolphin’s intriguing prospect Wootton won his two races last year by 11 combined lengths. The Fountainebleau’s filly counterpart, the one-mile Prix de la Grotte, has an eight-horse field headed by Magical and Mission Impassible. The O’Brien-trained Magical actually beat stablemate Happily in August before Happily proved herself the superior filly by season’s end. Mission Impassible concluded her 2-year-old campaign with a close third-place finish in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac. The Group 3 Prix Noailles over 1 3/16 miles is an early prep for the French Derby, and with Ryan Moore in to ride Flag of Honour for O’Brien, he might be the favorite. Flag of Honour, by Galileo, races for the first time since capturing the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes over nine furlongs on Oct. 28. Other prominent entrants in the Noailles are Gyllen, Barade, and Alhadab.