RACING PREVIEWS:TRANS-ATLANTIC IRISH racing interest will stretch from the Czech Republic to Canada this weekend with Dawn Approach's likely coronation as Europe's outstanding two-year-old of 2012 at the centrepiece of it all at Newmarket this afternoon.
The hugely prestigious dual-Group One card at Newmarket, which also includes the Cesarewitch, is being targeted in force by both Jim Bolger and Aidan O’Brien with Dermot Weld and David Wachman among those also aiming at big-money pay-offs up the Rowley Mile. Four horses will attempt to become just the second Irish-trained winner of the Cesarewith in 20 years but it is the days “Future Champions” billing around which most interest will revolve.
A decisive victory for Dawn Approach in the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes will all but guarantee champion status for the Godolphin-owned colt after five wins already this season, and also give Bolger and jockey Kevin Manning a fifth win in the last seven years in England’s most prestigious juvenile contest. Ballydoyle has two of the opposition while Ashdan is highly rated but an optimistic Bolger reported yesterday: “Dawn Approach is able to quicken up when the need arises and he loves his racing. I’ve been fortunate in having four horses that could win the Dewhurst – hopefully this fellow will be the fifth.”
Bolger has the outsider Wexford Opera in the Middle Park Stakes, a race in which O’Brien has three including the unlucky Cristoforo Colombo. The top French rider Gerald Mosse travels to Newmarket to team up with the unbeaten Prix Morny winner Reckless Abandon.
Trading Leather entered next year’s Derby calculations with an impressive maiden success at Gowran last month and flies the flag with Galileo Rock and Eye Of The Storm in the Group Three Autumn Stakes while Bolger’s Moyglare runner up Scintillula attempts to follow in the footprints of the 2006 winner Finsceal Beo in the Group Two Rockfel.
The famously gruelling Velka Pardubicka Steeplechase takes place in the Czech Republic today and contains both the Willie Mullins trained Uncle Junior (Emmet Mullins) and Enda Bolger’s Doctor Pat on which Richie McLernon will carry JP McManus’s colours.
Flat racing’s focus will switch to a $3 million triple-Grade One card in Toronto tomorrow night where Imperial Monarch (Ryan Moore) is a morning-line 3 to 1 favourite to give Aidan O’Brien a third Pattison Canadian International success, while Dermot Weld will attempt to score his first top-flight win in Canada withPrincess Highway in the $1 million EP Taylor Stakes.
