Spirits high in Ouija camp
The possibility of wet weather dominated all talk at the track earlier in the week, but conditions continued to dry out on both the turf and dirt courses.
It is easy to understand why connections of Filly & Mare Turf favourite were losing sleep at the start of the week, particularly after three inches of rain fell during 12 hours on Monday.
But although there have been storm warnings for the Dallas area every day since, any rain that has fallen has had a minimal effect with the thermometer heading north of 80F every day.
Fallon completed a lap of the circuit at a gentle pace aboard the Ed Dunlop-trained Ouija Board as the filly's owner, Lord Derby, looked on.
"It's dried out a lot in last 24 hours," said Lord Derby. "The pictures of the puddles certainly had us worried earlier in the week but Texans like to do things big and I was confident that the track would dry out quickly."
Fallon had some difficulty negotiating the cones laid out around the track to protect the racing line, but reported "she's in awesome form" as he returned to the barn.
He added: "It was very useful to have ridden here yesterday in the international jockeys' challenge and get the feel of the place."
Another rider to have gained experience of the track is Frankie Dettori, who partnered Japanese-trained Classic hope Personal Rush in a gentle workout this morning and offered his observations on the course.
"Even though it is outside the turf track, the dirt track is the sharper, believe it or not," he said.
"All I need now is a bit of luck in the races but on the dirt you will definitely need to be racing up there, and I would have said being on the rail is three or four lengths faster."
A hallmark of this year's European challenge is the insistence that everybody has come with realistic or, depending on your viewpoint, pessimistic hopes.
And John Magnier, who owns at least part of all Aidan O'Brien's five runners, proved no exception to the rule as he took in the Texas air.
"You wouldn't be disappointed if none of them won," he said, before going on to highlight Turf runner Powerscourt as his leading hope.
"Kitten's Joy is the third-best three-year-old in the country and it is very unusual for that to be a turf horse, so he is obviously very talented.
"But on a line through Moscow Ballet, who was beaten four and a half lengths by him in the Secretariat, you would have to think we have a chance as Powerscourt is a better horse than Moscow Ballet."
