The top French filly Blue Rose Cen is set to travel out of France for the first time and tackle Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes.
Winner of both the French 1,000 Guineas and Oaks on her last two starts, Blue Rose Cen has got a green light to take on older horses in August’s Group One prize at the Goodwood festival.
Trainer Christopher Head confirmed the plan on Monday and reported: “I don’t think we have got to the limit of that filly yet.
“I still want to encounter the older fillies without getting into a new distance, so we’ll keep with the distance we know she is best at right now and try to encounter a new panel of fillies to be able to know if she is capable of getting into the Vermeille. Then we will pretty much know if she is an Arc or an Opera [horse].”
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Blue Rose Cen completed a rare Group One hat-trick in the Classics having also landed the Prix Marcel Boussac as a two-year-old.
In other news, the Spanish international footballer Álvaro Odriozola will have his colours carried by Maxux in Wednesday evening’s Listed feature at Naas.
The Real Madrid player has already had a number of winners trained by Joseph O’Brien, including Maxux, a Frankel filly who made an impressive winning debut at Gowran earlier this month.
She is one of 10 declared for the Naas Oaks Trial, a race that produced the subsequent Irish Oaks winner Even So three years ago.
O’Brien will saddle two other starters in the mile and a quarter event, Perfect Portrait and Shamwari.
Odriozola, 27, has outlined long-term plans to become a successful owner-breeder in racing and last year described his dream as being to own “a horse of a lifetime”.
Aidan O’Brien is also triple-handed in the race with Wayne Lordan’s mount, Library, top-rated on an official handicap mark of 97.
