Joseph O’Brien will try upset his father’s Irish Oaks hotpot Minnie Hauk at the Curragh on Saturday but his big-race ambitions also extend to Paris 24 hours later.
Top French rider Maxime Guyon has been engaged for O’Brien’s Green Sense in the €119,000 Group Two Goffs Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly.
The Irish hope is the sole filly taking on four colts in the historic six-furlong juvenile event won by Blackbeard in 2022.
Green Sense, a Curragh winner on her debut in April, was fancied for Royal Ascot’s Albany Stakes but failed to fire behind Venetian Sun.
RM Block
The top-class Ramatuelle beat male opposition in this two years ago and Green Sense is up against Venetian Sun’s stable companion Super Soldier, unplaced behind Gstaad in the Coventry at Ascot. His trainer Karl Burke won the Papin last year with Arabie. Another English hope, Tadej, was sixth in the Coventry.
O’Brien is rapidly closing in on €1.5 million in prizemoney in Ireland this season and Wemighttakedlongway could sweep him past it in style if emerging on top in the Oaks.
The trainer is triple-handed in Sunday’s Group Three Al Shira’aa Meadow Court Stakes at the Curragh and he has snapped up Ryan Moore for Uluru.
The sole raider for this contest is Mark Prescott’s Tasmania. The 2023 French Oaks third was previously at HQ when unplaced behind Bluestocking in last year’s Pretty Polly.
She returns on the back of a comeback effort on the all-weather at Newcastle and forecast softer conditions should suit her well.
Sunday’s Curragh feature is the Group Two Romanised Minstrel Stakes, where Diego Velazquez steps back to seven furlongs for the first time since his racecourse debut.
The Frankel colt has promised to break through to the top level without ever quite managing it, but still boasts a standout 118 rating in this company.
There could, however, be significant improvement to come after his return to action behind Docklands in the Queen Anne at Ascot.
Elsewhere, the National Hunt campaign continues in Britain with Gavin Cromwell sending Ballysax Hank for the featured £100,000 (€115,000) Summer Plate in Market Rasen. Harry Cobden rides the sole Irish hope who is having just his fourth start over fences.
In other jumps news, Horse Racing Ireland has confirmed the three-mile Grade One novice chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas festival has been scrapped.
Instead, it has reversed the decision to finish the two-mile novice event that had traditionally been a St Stephen’s Day highlight. That contest will return on December 26th and as a result Limerick’s Faugheen Chase has been extended in trip.
“Following a review of the 2024/2025 programme, it was deemed optimal to reinstate the Christmas Novice Steeplechase at Leopardstown and create a greater distance differential with that race and the Faugheen Novice Steeplechase by extending the Limerick Grade 1 by 1.5 furlongs,” a HRI statement said.
Racing’s ruling body also said this season will see changes to black-type bumper races. They include excluding seven-year-old horses and older from all Graded and Listed bumpers.
It comes after the seven-year-old Redemption Day won the Grade One bumper at the Punchestown festival last year. He had finished runner-up in the race two years previously.
