RACING: Aidan O'Brien, who took the British trainers' championship for the second year running, continued his Group One winning form in France on Saturday and confirmed yesterday that the double-Derby and Breeders' Cup winner High Chaparral will race again next year.
The Ballydoyle trainer wound up another season at home as champion trainer with two winners at Leopardstown yesterday but he is already formulating his team for the next campaign.
"We will have some good older horses. Milan is back with us and High Chaparral and Hawk Wing will race as four year olds. We have had a good season. We just missed out on the middle third because of the sickness in the yard.
"That affected horses like Hold That Tiger. He only just made it back for the Grand Criterium in France and it was the same in the Breeders' Cup whereas Johannesburg ran in all the big races last year," O'Brien said.
All told, O'Brien saddled 19 Group One winners worldwide, just four short of his record total of 23 last year. "We were lucky through the middle of the season to come back at all," he said.
Alberto Giacometti put himself into the Classic picture for 2003 by landing the Criterium de St-Cloud on Saturday under Michael Kinane.
The O'Brien runner pounced late to beat the English-trained Summerland by a head with the other O'Brien runner, The Great Gatsby, back in fourth. "We thought a lot of him in spring but he got sick and we were lucky to get a run into him at the Curragh. Without that he couldn't have gone to France. It would have been very hard to catch up otherwise," he said.
Willie Mullins yesterday expressed himself concerned with Florida Pearl's condition after his star chaser finished a well-beaten fourth on his reappearance at Down Royal on Saturday.
Ridden by Barry Geraghty, the 10-year-old trailed home 29 lengths behind the winner, More Than A Stroll, in the James Nicholson Wine Merchants Champion Chase.
Geraghty sent Florida Pearl to the front ahead of See More Business seven fences from home before fading in the straight.
"He's quite stiff and sore and he's lost a fair bit of weight consistent with doing too much in a race on that sort of ground. He had a very hard race," revealed the Bagnelstown trainer.
"I think just going on that far out in ground that heavy for his first run just took its toll. Both horses just cut their throats going down the back and his race was over a good half mile from home and you can see that in the horse this morning.
"He's tired now and I hope it doesn't just mark him for the rest of the season. It was a huge question to ask a horse to go on that far out on that sort of ground."
Mullins hopes to run Florida Pearl in next month's Durkan Chase at Punchestown before he prepares the Pertemps King George VI Chase winner for another crack at the big St Stephen's Day prize.
