Aidan O’Brien is keeping a close eye on various international weather outlooks ahead of Saturday’s bumper European Group One programme for two-year-olds.
Auguste Rodin is 6-4 favourite to give O’Brien a record 11th success in Doncaster’s Vertem Futurity.
What Ballydoyle juveniles might accompany him to Britain’s final top-flight prize of the year or get diverted instead to Saint-Cloud for a pair of Group One races that afternoon will be dictated by ground conditions in Paris and Yorkshire.
And such is the strength of O’Brien’s two-year-old squad there is likely to be some left over to take care of business at home in Leopardstown’s featured Group Three Eyrefield Stakes.
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The range of options is reflected in multiple entries and O’Brien said on Tuesday: “Auguste Rodin is the most likely for Doncaster and maybe a few others. All the others will be divided between France and Leopardstown.
“We are just trying to leave it as late as possible to see about the ground.”
If the Futurity has been a happy hunting ground for the Irishman over the years, then he also has a fine record in both Saint-Cloud contests.
Van Gogh in 2020 was the last of five previous winners in the Criterium International while Fame And Glory (2008) is one of four previous O’Brien winners in the Criterium De Saint Cloud over 10 furlongs.
Promising colts such as Adelaide River, Covent Garden and Gulf Of Mexico have French options while also figuring among 17 entries left in the Eyrefield at Tuesday’s forfeit stage.
Luxembourg’s full brother Hiawatha is another of the entries left in that as well as the mile and a quarter contest in France.
The latter race is also an option for Donnacha O’Brien’s Proud And Regal as well as Jim Bolger’s filly Gan Teorrainn. She made a mockery of 50-1 odds on her last trip to France when runner-up in the Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc day.
The Criterium de Saint-Cloud or the Futurity is also a choice facing the Juddmonte team over their promising colt Arrest.
Trained by John and Thady Gosden, the son of Frankel is likely to get a shot at joining Juddmonte’s squad of 2023 Classic contenders that’s topped by the Dewhurst winner Chaldean.
“We’re not certain where we’re going just yet,” admitted the Juddmonte racing manager, Barry Mahon.
“I spoke with John and Thady this morning and they will make their mind up over the next few days. They are looking at the race at Saint-Cloud as well as Doncaster. He will run in one or the other but we’re not sure which one.
“He is a fine big horse and I think he is all about next year really. John and Thady are aware of that and I think are very much mindful that they don’t want to do any harm this year. So, if there one race looking a little weaker than the other, I would say that would be the way we’d go,” he added.
Mahon also said that both Chaldean and Nostrum, who finished third in the Dewhurst earlier this month, will be kept apart in the early part of their Classic campaigns in 2023.
“It will hopefully be a nice problem to have. Look, it’s a long winter and hopefully they winter well, stay in one piece and are fit, healthy and happy.
“They are two nice colts and if we can keep them apart next year we will certainly be trying to.
“We felt it was the right thing to do for the Dewhurst, they had both earned their shot. But if the opportunity arose next year to keep them apart then we would probably try to do that.
“They are two very important horses and in the early part of the season you would like to keep them apart. If they have to meet later on then so be it,” he commented.
Chaldean is currently an 8-1 second-choice in ante-post betting for next year’s 2,000 Guineas behind Ballydoyle’s top-rated juvenile, Little Big Bear.
Sunday’s major prize in Ireland will be over jumps with Limerick hosting the €90,000 Ladbrokes Munster National.
A total of 30 entries were left in the big handicap on Tuesday with Gordon Elliott’s Farclas top of the ratings. Elliott has 11 of the entries overall for a race he landed in 2020 with Aforementioned.
Willie Mullins scored in it last year with Ontheropes but won’t be represented this time.
The sponsor’s initial reaction was to go 6-1 co-favourites about the trio of Donkey Years, Farceur Du Large and Ain’t That A Shame.
“The Munster National looks incredibly competitive; so much so, we can’t split the front three. However, there has been support for local trainer Eric McNamara’s Donkey Years, and he could breakaway as clear favourite,” said a Ladbrokes spokesperson.
