Aidan O’Brien will send two challengers to the Qatar Prix de Royallieu (G1) on October 1 with Emily Dickinson and Perotan confirm to undertake Verry Elleegant .
The one-mile, six-mile race for fill and mares has become the destination of choice for Verry Elleegant after uncertainty arose around whether the winner of the Lexus Melbourne Cup (G1) will win. reached the final pitch for the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) ) due to her rating. As a result, the connections chose not to add her € 120,000 on September 28.
Horses trained outside of France have won the last four editions of the Prix de Royallieu, including Great tonight in 2020 and Dream of love last year for coaches John and Thady Gosden, who also landed the 2019 edition with Anapurna.
Emily Dickinson has yet to add to her first hit in the spring but O’Brien was encouraged by the little girl’s performance as she finished fifth Eldar Eldarov in Cazoo St Leger (G1) at Doncaster last time.
“She came out of her race well and we thought she ran really well, especially for a dirty man in St Leger. I really think she’s still making progress,” he said. he said. “We also ran Perotan in that race. She also excelled in her last race and we are pleased with her.”
Along Luxembourg in the Arc, the biggest name running for O’Brien at the Arc weekend is Kyprios who are looking for the fourth group 1 of the season at the Qatar Prix du Cadran (G1) on Saturday.
The 4-year-old is unbeaten in five starts this season, including top level Gold Cup success (G1) at Royal Ascot, Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup Stakes British Champions Series (G1)—with a new star on leave retirement. Stradivarius on every occasion — and in Irish St Leger (G1) in Curragh on his most recent warm-up.
O’Brien, who is yet to win against Cadran, believes there is more to come from the lightly-raced Kyprios, and hopes the ground at Longchamp won’t be too testing over the weekend with the retainer having not run into major problems. since its launch more than two years ago.
“Kyprios is fine and he seems to be off the field as well (Irish St Leger),” the coach said at an event organized by France Galop. “It’s his first time running on the Cups this year, so we think he’s (still improving).
“It might be the softest ground he’s run on in a while, even though he’s been running as heavy as a 2-year-old. Still, he’s a good movable horse, so hopefully it does. not too soft.”
