It’s Guineas number two of the season in Paris on Sunday where the unbeaten Ballydoyle star Henry Longfellow is favourite to be Aidan O’Brien’s ride to Classic recovery.
Still smarting from City Of Troy’s spectacular blowout at Newmarket last weekend, the O’Brien team pin their faith on Henry Longfellow to emerge from his stable companion’s shadow in the €650,000 Poule D’Essai Des Poulains, off at Longchamp at 3.30 Irish-time.
It’s not unfamiliar territory for the regally bred son of Dubawi and Minding, who successfully stepped in for City Of Troy when he was a late non-runner from last season’s National Stakes at the Curragh.
That completed a three from three juvenile career that normally would have such a blue-blood front and centre in Ballydoyle’s Classic calculations. Now that the aura has well and truly vanished from the supposed paragon, Henry Longfellow gets his own shot at hugely valuable Guineas success.
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Ryan Moore takes the spin and will break from stall six of the 13 runners, while stable companion Diego Velazquez, the mount of Christophe Soumillon, is in box 11.
On a hugely significant weekend that promises to sort out more of the pecking order for the upcoming Derby, the Ballydoyle priority is resolutely on getting the massively significant Guineas train back on the rails.
With his lustrous pedigree, and faultless two-year-old career, should Henry Longfellow deliver his trainer a sixth French 2,000 Guineas — and a first since St Mark’s Basilica three years ago — the Coolmore calculators will be whirring in terms of a future stud career.
Top-flight success at a mile remains the blue-chip bloodstock commodity, no matter whether at Newmarket, Longchamp, or the Curragh.
O’Brien and Moore will also fancy their chances in Sunday’s fillies’ version, the €550,000 Poule D’Essai Des Pouliches, off at 2.50 Irish time, with their hope, Content. She is joined in the race by Willie McCreery’s Moyglare runner-up Vespertilo.
The latter has a double-digit draw (11) that can be a problem around Longchamp’s mile, which has a bend soon after the start.
Content fared better in the draw with eight, although the patient tactics that saw her deliver a promising if luckless performance at the Breeders’ Cup in November might not prove ideal in a typically tactical French contest. O’Brien’s sole previous win in the race was Rose Gypsy in 2001.
If Godolphin’s supplemented Romantic Style looks like the Pouliches benchmark judged by her Deauville victory last month, the Poulain’s focus will be resolutely on Henry Longfellow and his chances of doing what City Of Troy spectacularly could not.
That City Of Troy still tops Derby betting lists probably says more about public faith in O’Brien’s ability to repeat the minor miracle he pulled off at Epsom last year with Auguste Rodin.
But should Henry Longfellow take centre stage with a convincing victory in France, particularly with his superb bloodline out of a brilliant Oaks winner, it is entirely possible the former Ballydoyle golden boy could find himself elbowed aside.
Even if it turns into anti-climax again, something else from the sport’s most powerful yard might emerge this weekend to put their stamp on the Epsom picture.
Paul Smith, one of the Coolmore “lads”, said earlier this week he believes O’Brien’s team is “swinging into gear’ after their spectacular Newmarket reverse.
That theory will be tested at Lingfield’s Derby Trial on Saturday where Illinois (Moore) and The Euphrates (Declan McDonogh) will try to land a race that subsequent ill-fated Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck won in 2019.
The pair filled the frame in last month’s Ballysax and O’Brien said on Friday: “The two of them have been on a pretty similar programme, which is why they both started off in the Ballysax.
“Illinois had the better form at two, but The Euphrates finished in front of him the last day. We think they’ll both get further and they’ve both had a run now, so it is going to be interesting.”
Another unbeaten Group One-winning two-year-old in Los Angeles will return to action in Sunday’s Cashel Palace Derby Trial at Leopardstown. The Camelot colt landed the Criterium de Saint-Cloud over 10 furlongs last October.
But amid all the Derby chatter, Guineas glory in Paris will be this weekend’s priority for an O’Brien team that’s had their confidence rattled by City Of Troy.
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