O'Brien reveals his three starters for Sunday's Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
The field for Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly is taking firmer shape, with Aidan O’Brien revealing his three likely runners in the race, and a leading French hope withdrawn because of injury.
La Cressionnere, who won the French Oaks and the French 1000 Guineas this year, suffered some sort of hind-end injury in training, trainer Jean-Claude Rouget reported Sunday, and won’t race again until next year.
Three-year-old fillies such as La Cressionnere get an 11-pound break in the weights from their older-mare rivals. (Older males carry 131 pounds in the Arc, older females 128, 3-year-old males 123, and 3-year-old fillies 120.)
Nonetheless, O’Brien did not mention either of his top 3-year-old fillies, Minding and Seventh Heaven, for the Arc, instead listing on Sunday the trio of Highland Reel, Found, and Order of St. George as his intended starters Sunday at Chantilly. Of the three, Found easily is the most interesting. She ran well below her best form finishing ninth in the Arc last year, but despite racing seven times already in 2016 she looked as strong as ever finishing second to the talented Almanzoor last out in the Irish Champion Stakes, a 1 1/4-mile race short of her ideal trip.
Postponed is the ante-post Arc favorite, and trainer Roger Varian said this weekend he doesn’t have course-condition concerns for Postponed. Varian said he would not want to see heavy ground for the Arc, but that is highly unlikely with the course listed as good as of this weekend, and nothing more than moderate rain forecast through Sunday.
O'Brien sweeps in Beresford Stakes
O’Brien ran swept the top three placings in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes for 2-year-olds on Sunday at The Curragh, with Capri beating Yucatan by three-quarters of a length, and Examplar finishing third by the same margin. O’Brien sent out four of the six runners in the one-mile race run over heavy ground, while his son Joseph had a fifth starter.
Capri, whose gray coat runs toward roan, is a Galileo colt who has won three of four starts and is considered a leading early contender for the Epsom Derby. An O’Brien-trained 2-year-old held in regard that high is unlikely to be sent overseas for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Nightflower gets first 2016 win
Nightflower won for the first time in 2016 with his victory in the Group 1 Grosser Preis Von Europa over 1 1/2 miles Sunday at Cologne Racecourse in Germany. Peter Schiergen trains the winner, a 4-year-old by Dylan Thomas.