Leopardstown's Champion Stakes, the Irish leg of the Emirates world series, has a new sponsor and it looks like they could have hit the jackpot with latest superstar Galileo lined up to have a shot at it.
Aidan O'Brien declared yesterday the 10-furlong contest is "definitely a target" for his double Derby winner, and Galileo is even likely to have one run before it.
That would bring the Juddmonte International at York and maybe even the King George VI &Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes into the reckoning, but O'Brien didn't confirm an immediate target, saying instead: "All these races are up for discussion."
It is still good news for An Bord Bia, who have taken over from Esat Digifone in sponsoring the Irish Group One race which has been won by champions like Pilsudski, Swain and Giants Causeway in recent years.
The contest will now be known as Ireland, the Food Island Champion Stakes, and will be run on September 8th, but all attention is likely to focus on the unbeaten Galileo.
"He is very well at the moment. As well as Leopardstown, we could consider the Queen Elizabeth II at Ascot and the Breeders Cup Classic, but all these races are hard to win," O'Brien added.
This weekend, however, the Ballydoyle trainer is focusing on Sandown's Eclipse Stakes, where Black Minnaloushe will be joined by Bach and possibly the outsider, Darwin, who could be entered to ensure a good pace.
"Black Minnaloushe is well and seems to be thriving all the time on his racing," said O'Brien, who is pondering running Sophisticat in next week's Cherry Hinton Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting. Also set to go to Newmarket is Wiseman's Ferry for the July Stakes, but no firm plans have been drawn up for the July Cup.
Meanwhile, it was smiling faces all round at Leopardstown yesterday with increasing confidence that the track will not be required to close due to work on the M50 extension.
The new ring road, which will cut through the existing sprint track when work begins later this year, has been a headache for the Leopardstown authorities in recent years, but an agreement with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Council is expected within weeks.
"Our main priority all along has not been to close the track and I'm fairly confident we won't have to," said the Leopardstown manager Matt O'Dwyer yesterday.
"We could have to give up some of our sprint races as we realign a sprint track and allow it time to settle, but I'm hopeful that will be the extent of it," he added.
Tonight sees the second leg of Bellewstown where The Block Monster can improve enough from a promising debut fourth to Specious at the Curragh last Friday to land the spoils in the mile juvenile maiden.
Goldstreet had an appalling series of misfortunes at Gowran when a bad mistake at the third last was followed by interference and then being forced out by a loose horse at the last. That should be put right in the opener.
The promising apprentice Tadhg O'Shea is given the vote to win the sprint handicap on the Curragh runner-up Tropical King.
