Weld to join Aga Khan team
Both two-year-olds and yearlings will be sent to the highly-accomplished Weld, who will be one of three Irish trainers for the owner alongside John Oxx and Michael Halford.
The Aga Khan also has three French trainers – Alain de Royer Dupre, Mikel Delzangles and Jean-Claude Rouget – and there will be no retained jockey in Ireland for 2014, with riders employed by individual trainers. Declan McDonogh has been the appointed rider for the Aga this season.
Pat Downes, manager of Aga Khan Studs in Ireland, said in a statement: “We are really looking forward to having horses in training with Dermot Weld.
“This has been a difficult year for the organisation in Ireland, as John Oxx’s yard has been suffering from a virus.
“This has highlighted the need for us to spread our horses over a greater number of trainers to avoid this situation reoccurring.
“This policy has worked for us in France, so we felt it was worth implementing it in Ireland also.”
Meanwhile, Weld has nominated the Prix du Cadran at Longchamp as the likely comeback target for Rite Of Passage.
The 2010 Ascot Gold Cup hero has been seen just once in each of the last two seasons, and returned from over a year off the track to win the Qipco Long Distance Cup on Champions Day at Ascot last October.
The nine-year-old has not been seen so far in 2013 – he was withdrawn from the Gold Cup on the morning of the race due to quickening ground – but Weld is looking forward to a trip to France on October 6.
He told At The Races: “It’s been a wonderful summer, which is not ideal for him because with his leg problems he’s a horse who has to have a good give in the ground.
“I’ve been thinking of Paris in October and hopefully if they get the rain, the long-distance race would be his target.”
Asked about the possibility of Rite Of Passage first lining up in the Irish St Leger at the Curragh on September 15, Weld said: “I don’t think so. I think it’s going to come too soon for us. I think we’ll look at Paris.”
