RACING NEWS:IT'S NOT often an international star goes into a classic with the single best piece of form and is still dismissed as a 20 to 1 outsider, but Pop Rock will attempt to flout those odds in Saturday's Irish Field St Leger.

The veteran Japanese runner will be the oldest starter in the €240,000 Leger, but he brings an intriguing touch of the unknown to the Curragh highlight.

Pop Rock was a six-time winner at home but hit the international headlines in 2006 when beaten only a short head by compatriot Delta Blues in the Melbourne Cup.

But the nine-year-old’s best performance came the following year when a head runner-up to Admire Moon in the Japan Cup, with the likes of Vodka, Delta Blues and Papal Bull behind him.

After Pop Rock’s form started to decline, the decision was taken to send him to Ireland and the Curragh stables of Takashi Kalama, who took out a licence for the second time in this country on the back of the new arrival.

Kalama, who formerly worked for the late Con Collins, first took out a licence in 2002 but stopped three years later. But a trip home resulted in Pop Rock arriving at the Curragh in April and resurrecting Kalama’s training career.

His sole runner this season was Pop Rock, who made a winning Irish debut at the Galway festival in late July, and the Leger has been his target since. The horse worked yesterday under Mick Kinane and booked his Leger place where he will be ridden by Fran Berry.

“When he was a five- and six-year-old he was a champion. I think his rating was 119. But in the last year-and-a-half in Japan his form went down,” Kalama said.

“However, what I noticed when I went home was that even though he was finishing seventh, eighth and ninth, he was always finishing strong. In Japan there is always a high pace and when he was six he could follow it and then finish strong.

“In the last year-and-a-half he was getting left behind. But he was always finishing strong, so that’s why he moved to Ireland where the European racing pace is much slower and where he could be comfortable,” he added.

The Curragh is a very different environment to Tokyo, and while Pop Rock normally works quite lazily, the change in scenery seems to have reinvigorated the son of Helissio, and he won comfortably at Galway.

“Mentally he got fed up with the routine in Japan. I knew I couldn’t make him stronger or faster, but I could try to keep him happier. So he never goes to the same place three days in a row. I’ve taken him to rivers, mountains, fields with sheep and cattle, and all kinds of gallops.

“I was delighted with the win in Galway which was on good to firm ground. But he is an older horse and Mick seemed to think today that soft ground will be better for him this time. He is in top form and if he could get in the first four I will be delighted,” the trainer said.

Although Pop Rock is an outsider, punters appear to be siding with Profound Beauty as potentially the best hope of Dermot Weld’s two leading contenders.

Ladbrokes already had Profound Beauty as their favourite, but Paddy Power cut the Moyglare-owned mare to 4 to 1 yesterday while her stable companion Rite Of Passage drifted in the betting.

Charlie Swan has supplemented his progressive dual-purpose Rajik into the Leger for €24,000.

“His best form is on top of the ground but he was only beaten a neck on heavy at Galway last year and he also ran well in Killarney on soft ground one day,” Swan said.

“We just thought he’s won a nice bit of prizemoney and we might never get the chance to go for a race like this with him again. He is in such great form right now and we will have a crack at it.”

Declan McDonogh will ride Rajik on Saturday.

Sunday’s Curragh feature is the Group Two Tote Blandford Stakes for which seven of the 20 entries remaining after yesterday’s forfeit stage are British-trained.

The include Henry Cecil’s Musidora Stakes winner Aviate, who was supplemented into the race. She disappointed when behind Snow Fairy in the Epsom Oaks.

John Gosden’s High Heeled, who finished third to Fame And Glory in the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June, is another possible starter.

Among the home defence could be Lush Lashes, who returned to action at the Curragh last month in the Dance Design Stakes won by Obama Rule.

John Oxx may run his long-absent star Arazan in Sunday’s Jack Jill Solonaway Stakes. The local trainer has also left Keredari and Rayeni in the mile race, which has ex-Group One winner Zafisio among the 17 entries left in.