The strongest team ever sent to the Breeders' Cup by a European trainer will be flown to New York in the next 24 hours, but Aidan O'Brien admits he will be "over the moon" if there is just one winner among them.
The Ballydoyle trainer yesterday reported no last-minute change to the squad that is headed by the dual-derby winner Galileo. He will be joined in the dirt Classic by the Irish 2,000 Guineas victor, Black Minnaloushe.
Alongside them will be Europe's top juvenile, Johannesburg, the champion sprinter-elect Mozart, the St Leger winner Milan and the $2.3 million juvenile filly Sophisticat. However, O'Brien is under no illusions about the difficulty of breaking his Breeders' Cup duck this weekend.
"We will be over the moon if we can have a winner. The Breeders' Cup is a huge thing for everybody," he said. "The horses will be flown either Monday evening or Tuesday morning and so far it is so far so good." However, the run of success enjoyed by O'Brien shows no sign of stopping, with Sholokhov picking up another Group One prize in the Gran Criterium in San Siro, Milan yesterday.
Placed behind stable companion Hawk Wing on his last two starts, the Sadler's Wells colt ran out a three-length winner under Mick Kinane from the English -trained Swing West. The O'Brien-trained filly Toroca picked up a Group Three race on the same card.
O'Brien also said yesterday that the Beresford Stakes winner, Castle Gandolfo, and the Grand Lodge winner, Mutinyonthebounty, are the most likely of his string to run in Britain's final Group One of the season, the Racing Post Trophy, at Doncaster on Saturday .
The English trainer Mark Johnston was in Milan yesterday but it was at Naas where he picked up the £45,000 Tote October Handicap with the all-the-way winner Celtic Mission.
Jockey Keith Dalgleish, making his first visit to Ireland, bounced the three-year-old from the tape start and the pair were never seriously challenged. "Our only worry was the tape start but Keith got him wound up at the start and got him out in front," said travelling head lad John Buckham.
John Murtagh, hot on the trail of Pat Smullen in the jockeys' title race, was on Julie Jalouse in the listed Garnet Stakes but had to endure watching the favourite's stablemate Gaelic Queen hold on and win by half a length from Kalamunda.
"I wish all horses had this one's heart. There is nothing tougher than her," said John Oxx, who will aim Gaelic Queen at the listed Knockaire Stakes on the last day of the season.
Jim Bolger won his sixth Bridcatcher Nursery as Marionnaud proved the punters wrong with a one-length defeat of Paris Express. The punters had plunged on Sandford Park's weight advantage from Navan form last Wednesday, but the favourite struggled home in eighth after being outpaced early.
