RACING NEWS:IT IS eight years since Aidan O'Brien last won the Prix Morny, and his Phoenix Stakes winner Alfred Nobel looks like facing a real task at Deauville on Sunday if that gap is to be bridged.
Twenty-three entries remain in the Group One event, including the 2,000 Guineas ante-post favourite Canford Cliffs, who won the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.
Alfred Nobel landed the Phoenix Stakes last month and will be attempting a Group One double that O’Brien brought off with Johannesburg in 2001 and Fasliyev in 1999. The champion trainer’s other Morny winner was Orpen in 1998.
He has also left in both the Phoenix runner-up Air Chief Marshal and Reggae Dancer.
O’Brien looks like being busy, too, in Sunday’s Group Two feature at Fairyhouse, the Galileo Futurity Stakes, as he has half of the 18 entries remaining in the race after yesterday’s forfeit stage. The Ballydoyle hopefuls include the unbeaten Cape Blanco and the Tipperary Listed winner Viscount Nelson.
Carazam is also a Tipperary winner after the Azamour colt overcame a poor start to win on his debut.
“He wouldn’t want it too soft, so we will be keeping an eye on the weather,” said Tommy Stack’s son and assistant, Fozzy, yesterday. “He did it well on his first start considering the ground he lost.”
Mark Johnston’s Shakespearian is the sole cross-sea entry for the Futurity, but half the 22 horses in the valuable Tattersalls Ireland Sales Stakes are British-trained. They include Richard Hannon’s unbeaten Dick Turpin.
In other news, the Galway card scheduled for September 1st has been switched to Roscommon on September 8th. The Galway authorities want to keep their August-September festival at three days this year, just as it will be in 2010. Roscommon will now have a two-day card on September 7th-8th, with a €5 admission to the first day’s racing.
Sariska will face just five rivals as she bids for a third successive Group One victory in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks tomorrow. Aidan O’Brien is double-handed with Roman Empress and Tamarind, while Barshiba and Saphira’s Fire complete the line-up.
Charlie Swan enjoyed a legendary association with Aidan O’Brien through the triple-Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq, and the link continues at the second evening of the Killarney festival when the former champion jockey employs 16-year-old Joseph O’Brien for the ride on Rajik.
He is one of 11 runners in the featured 14-furlong handicap, and O’Brien’s 7lb claim could be the key to the four-year-old emerging best. Rajik has something to find with the likes of Evening Rushour and Mountain Snow from running behind Ghimaar at Galway, but later in the Ballybrit week Swan’s runner put in a fine effort to make Drunken Sailor pull out all the stops in a valuable handicap.
Course form is always a help around Killarney, and Val O’Brien’s horse Barna Bay is back at the Kerry track after winning here last month.
Last time out Barna Bay ran noticeably well behind Jubilant Note at Ballinrobe and he is preferred to Indian Pace, who ran poorly twice at Galway.
The poor weather forecast will work against First Symphony in the mares Beginners Chase, while Rightside’s experience from a promising Gowran debut should help her in the opener.
