O'Brien loaded for Vertem Futurity

The Group 1 Vertem Futurity on Saturday at Doncaster in England is going to look a lot like an Aidan O’Brien team workout.

The Ireland-based master trainer has five of the six entrants in the one-mile race for 2-year-olds formerly called the Racing Post Trophy. O’Brien runs heavily favored Mogul, second-choice Innisfree, as well as Louisiana, Iberia, and Royal County Down. Andrew Balding-trained Kameko, second by a neck to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf-bound Royal Dornoch in the Royal Lodge Stakes, is the only entrant from outside the O’Brien yard.

Saturday’s Doncaster card, the British season’s last flat-racing program of significance, is threatened by weather, with heavy rain forecast to hit the racecourse. The course already was termed soft on Friday, and a Saturday morning inspection will determine whether the ground is suitable for racing.

The Futurity, run down a straight course, generally attracts stamina-oriented 2-year-olds who, should they turn out to be Classic horses the following season, often have a greater claim on races like the 1 1/2-mile Derby than the one-mile 2000 Guineas. Mogul, for instance, has raced over one mile in all three of his starts, most recently handling a step up to the Group 2 level with an eye-catching win Sept. 14 at Leopardstown in the Champion Juvenile Stakes.

Innisfree got an earlier start to his campaign and made two seven-furlong starts during July before a two-month break led into a victory Sept. 29 going one mile in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at The Curragh. That race came over heavy going and Innisfree’s ability to cope with such conditions could serve him well Saturday.

Kameko was the 6-5 favorite in the one-mile Royal Lodge at Newmarket and led late in the race before the O’Brien-trained Royal Dornoch ran him down. He could meet a similar fate at Doncaster.

Competitive Grand Criterium de Saint-Cloud

O’Brien also has three more 2-year-olds entered in the Group 1 Gran Criterium de Saint-Cloud on Saturday in a France, a 1 1/4-mile race that drew nine entrants and has no standouts.

O’Brien’s trio of Mythical, Celtic High King, and Arthur’s Kingdom all are so far a couple cuts below the trainer’s top entrants in the Vertem Futurity, and none has the promise of the leading French hopes in the race.

Those appear to be Mkfancy, Pao Alto, and The Summit. Mkfancy, a Makfi colt trained by Pia Brandt, finished third in a Longchamp race restricted to debuting 2-year-olds and won by Victor Ludorum, a three-time winner in three 2-year-old starts who captured the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere to cap his season. Mkfancy returned in his second start and won a one-mile maiden race Sept. 27 at Saint-Cloud by three lengths

Pao Alto, a Wertheimer brothers homebred by Intello and trained by Christophe Ferland, easily won a one-mile Longchamp maiden race in his second start before romping in a listed race in Bordeaux on Oct. 10, a highly rated performance.

The Summit, thrice started, exits a solid third-place finish going 1 1/8 miles at Chantilly in the Group 3 Prix de Conde, a race won by the promising Wertheimer colt Hopeful, a half-length winner over Pao Alto in their common debut.