Aspen Grove supplied Co Tipperary trainer Fozzy Stack with a first top-flight victory at Belmont last month and will try to transfer that winning form to upstate New York on Saturday night.
Having landed the Belmont Oaks under a vintage Oisín Murphy spin, the Irish filly is set to take on colts in the $600,000 (€544,000) Saratoga Derby, due off at 10.01 Irish time and live on Sky Sports Racing.
Better prize money and Grade One status have encouraged connections to take on colts in a race memorably won by Joseph O’Brien’s State Of Rest a couple of years ago.
O’Brien himself is back for another crack at it through his Curragh handicap winner The Franchise. He will be ridden by Luis Saez but has been dismissed as a 30-1 outsider in local Morning Line betting.
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With Murphy committed to riding the English hope Lion Of War this time, renowned US rider Johnny Velazquez steps in for the ride on Aspen Grove, who will break from stall three in the nine-runner field.
The Irish filly has remained in the US since her Belmont success and appears to have thrived since moving to Saratoga.
“She’s in the form of her life. Maybe I’m biased but my opinion is she’s definitely improved from Belmont,” reported Mark “Fish” Enright, the former Galway Plate winning rider, who is supervising Aspen Grove on her transatlantic trip.
“She was in the quarantine barn at Belmont, on her own. I don’t think it was for her. Since she’s been here with horses around her, she’s been loving it,” he told US media.
On the undercard Stack also runs Chazzesmee in a $135,000 contest but his principal focus is on the filly who broke his duck at the highest level in Belmont.
“She travelled well in that race and Oisín gave her a great ride on the day. Hopefully she gets another great ride.
“She accelerates well – we saw that in the last race, and last year when she won the Group Three [Newtownanner Stud Stakes at the Curragh] when she came from last in the final furlong,” Stack reported.
Irish interest in Europe’s Group One weekend feature got scotched when Little Big Bear was removed from Sunday’s Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.
Having supplemented last year’s champion two-year-old into the race at a cost of almost €30,000, Aidan O’Brien was forced to abandon those plans due to a foot problem.
“He just has a stone bruise, so he doesn’t run,” explained O’Brien after Little Big Bear didn’t appear among a final field of 10 declared on Friday.
The field is topped by the English-trained Curragh specialist Art Power, who will try to break his Group One duck in the 6½-furlong contest off at 3.25.
Art Power won the Sapphire Stakes at Curragh in impressive fashion on his last start. Tim Easterby’s grey is unbeaten in four starts at Irish racing’s HQ.
While his brother is in Grade One action in Saratoga, Donnacha O’Brien has a Listed target on Newmarket’s July course for his filly Amusement on Saturday.
Third to Emily Dickinson and Rosscarbery in the Curragh Cup on her last start, the Galileo filly looks to have been found a good chance for winning black type by her trainer.
“She is the highest rated filly in the race (103) and it looks like she has a big chance,” explained O’Brien, who is pursuing a first course win as a trainer.
“It is her first time travelling outside of Ireland and you are never sure how they will handle the travelling.
“Her last run is strong form as the two fillies that finished in front of her are Group One fillies. She had a lot of allowances the last day and doesn’t have quite as many here, but we are hopeful of a good run.
“I had a few rides at the July Course as a jockey, but this is my first runner as a trainer. It would be nice to have a winner at the July Course but more so for the filly so that she then becomes a stakes race winner,” he added.
The domestic weekend focus is on the Galway festival’s wind-down with Sunday’s feature the €110,000 Ahonoora Handicap including a pair of cross-channel challengers.
On A Session has become an aptly named Ballybrit standard in this race and finished in the frame on three occasions.
It has been his misfortune to run into the remarkable Current Option, who is chasing a fourth successive win in the race this weekend.
Current Option wasn’t beaten far behind Coeur D’Or in Tuesday’s big mile feature, although the conditions of this race seem to suit Ado McGuinness’s stalwart perfectly.
He is one of four representatives for the Co Dublin trainer and looks sure to prove a major player again off a mark of just 95.
Dunum looked a likely winner of Tuesday’s feature until getting run out of it close home. Billy Lee’s mount is drawn wide but that hasn’t proved a major factor this week and the drop back in trip might suit Dunum.
Malbay Matters came within an inch of chinning Lan Cinnte on the line on Wednesday despite getting hampered at the start.
Sunday’s mile handicap looks a good opportunity for Emmet Mullins’s runner while Hubrisko could be staying on when others have cried enough in an ultra-competitive looking handicap chase.
