RACING NEWS:JOHNNY MURTAGH has elected to ride Age Of Aquarius in Saturday's Doncaster St Leger which leaves the mount on Yeats in the Irish St Leger at the Curragh on the same afternoon to Seamus Heffernan.
Aidan O’Brien’s number two jockey is also set to team up with Alfred Nobel in the second Curragh Group One on Saturday, the Ladbrokes Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.
Murtagh has elected to side with Age Of Aquarius, runner up in last July’s Grand Prix de Paris, over the unlucky Ebor runner-up Changingoftheguard at Doncaster. Colm O’Donoghue will ride Changingoftheguard.
O’Brien is chasing a fourth success in the Doncaster Leger while his legendary stayer Yeats is favourite to repeat his 2007 triumph in the Irish Classic.
Mastercraftsman is set to drop back to a mile for his next start in Ascot’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes later this month.
The Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner has twice taken on Sea The Stars over 10 furlongs, finishing runner-up in York’s Juddmonte and third in last weekend’s Irish Champion Stakes.
The four-time Group One winner has emerged in good shape from Leopardstown and Aidan O’Brien has reported: “It looks like he could go back to a mile for the QEII at Ascot.”
The champion trainer also confirmed that next month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe remains a target for his Irish Derby winner Fame And Glory despite getting beaten by Sea The Stars on Saturday.
It is the second time Fame And Glory has finished runner-up to Sea The Stars this year and the John Oxx-trained superstar has also supplanted O’Brien’s colt as favourite for Longchamp’s autumn spectacular.
However, the Ballydoyle trainer confirmed yesterday: “Fame And Glory has come out of Leopardstown in good shape and the Arc is the plan.”
Next week’s Listowel festival again faces the possibility of being disrupted by the weather as the Co Kerry track is currently waterlogged and unraceable. The 2009 festival is due to start on Sunday and go on for seven days in total but ground conditions last year meant the famous racing festival was confined to five days with no flat races run.
The Turf Club’s senior inspector of courses Val O’Connell has inspected the track and described it as unraceable. He will again look at it tomorrow afternoon. Depending on the results of that inspection, possible contingency plans could have to be put in place between Horse Racing Ireland and the course authorities for next week’s action.
