Workforce team ponder Breeders’ Cup option
The Derby winner, trained by Michael Stoute and ridden by Ryan Moore, bounced back to form after his flop in the King George at Ascot to land the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday and is now favourite to win in America at Churchill Downs next month.
“The horse trotted out fine this morning,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah.
“It was quite a rough race but Ryan negotiated a very good passage for him. He showed plenty of courage and brilliance to quicken at the right time.
“It (the plan) is to be decided. The Breeders’ Cup could be a possible, but we’ll have to see how he is over the next couple of weeks.’’
Workforce’s performance at Longchamp was at least the equal of his win in the Derby at Epsom.
“It was fantastic to see the Derby winner bounce back to form,” said Phil Smith, British Horseracing Authority head of handicapping.
“After his Derby win I had him on 128 and that was pretty much agreed by all the international handicappers, but initially when the Derby form didn’t seem to work out too cleverly at first and Workforce ran so disappointingly at Ascot we dropped him back to 126.
“After yesterday it’s pretty easy to get him back to at least 128 which was his Derby rating and now the Derby form doesn’t look as bad as people thought a month or six weeks after the race.
“He’s guaranteed to go back to his Derby figure. It’s just a debate whether he should be 1lb higher.’’
Meanwhile Red Cadeaux will be ridden by Johnny Murtagh in the totesport.com Cesarewitch at Newmarket on October 16. The star Irish pilot was on board the Ed Dunlop-trained four-year-old in last month’s Cesarewitch Trial over course and distance, in which the partnership finished second.
It was the third consecutive time that Red Cadeaux had filled the runner-up berth.
Dunlop said: “Johnny was very keen to ride again. He told me that he thought that they were going to hack up coming out of the Dip, but that the horse started to prick his ears and look about him up the hill.
“So we have decided to put a small pair of blinkers on Red Cadeaux on Champions’ Day so as to make him concentrate and, hopefully, put the race to bed.’’
Meanwhile Snow Fairy will run in the Emirates Airline Champions Stakes at Newmarket before heading to Japan for the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup.
Ed Dunlop is to resist the temptation to run the dual Oaks heroine in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and will instead aim for the ultra-valuable Kyoto feature on November 14.
Snow Fairy was due to run in Sunday’s Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp, but was taken out due to the testing ground.
