Racing

O’Brien has record-breaking 11th Futurity in sights with favourite Auguste Rodin

Billy Lee tries to narrow gap to Colin Keane in jockey championship with six rides at Gowran

Coolmore has high hopes and developing plans for Auguste Rodin. File photograph: Inpho

Mon Oct 17 2022 - 19:00

Auguste Rodin will lead Aidan O’Brien’s bid to secure a record 11th success in Saturday’s Vertem Futurity at Doncaster.

Already favourite for next year’s Derby, Auguste Rodin is one of 17 entries left in Britain’s final Group One of the year after Monday’s latest acceptance stage.

The son of Deep Impact impressed when successful at Leopardstown over Irish Champions Weekend and now has a shot at graduating to the top level before entering winter quarters.

He’s not the only one of Ballydoyle’s impressive two-year-old team with a chance of doing that this Saturday.

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Saint-Cloud hosts a pair of Group One contests worth €250,000 each for juveniles.

The Curragh maiden winner Espionage appears to be O’Brien’s number one contender for the Criterium International over a mile while several stable companions remain in the mix for the Criterium De Saint-Cloud over 10 furlongs.

O’Brien, who shares the Futurity record of 10 with the late Sir Henry Cecil, is hopeful Auguste Rodin can follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Luxembourg and subsequent classic winners like Magna Grecia (2018) and Camelot (2011.)

“We are thinking at the moment the main horse for the Futurity will be Auguste Rodin and we could send something else with him. Salt Lake City that won well in Navan could also run,” said O’Brien who has eight of the 17 entries still in the mix.

“We have two races in France the same day we’ll probably divide up some of the other horses in those two races. Espionage could go to the mile at Saint-Cloud,” he added.

There will also be Group One action in France on Sunday when the Prix Royal Oak takes place at Longchamp. Dermot Weld’s dual-Irish Leger winner Search For A Song is among 23 entries still in the near-two-mile contest as is Tony Mullins’s popular mare Princess Zoe.

Search For A Song finished fourth to Scope in last year’s Royal Oak, a race Weld won previously won 21 years ago with Vinne Roe. File photograph: Inpho

Search For A Song finished fourth to Scope in last year’s Royal Oak, a race Weld won previously won 21 years ago with Vinne Roe.

The last Irish-trained winner of the race was Yeats in 2008.

In the final stages of Ireland’s flat season on turf, Colin Keane is a 1-8 favourite with Powers to retain the jockey’s title.

Keane leads his rival Billy Lee by four (85-81) after a sparkling treble at Dundalk on Friday night and another winner at Naas on Sunday.

Both riders are in Gowran on Tuesday where Lee holds a numerical edge with six rides to Keane’s three.

Lee’s best chance of closing the gap could come on Edward O’Grady’s Stormie Outlook in a mile handicap.

Elsewhere last week’s runaway Curragh winner Facethepuckout returns to action in another mile handicap.

Michael O’Callaghan’s runner could hardly have won any easier by six lengths at HQ and carries a mandatory 7lb penalty here. That leaves him with 11lbs officially in hand on readjusted official ratings.

French Oaks winner Fancy Blue’s sister Water Nymph has a chance to secure a valuable winning bracket in an earlier maiden.

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