RACING:JOSEPH O'BRIEN can warm-up for one of the major engagements of his young career to date on board Await The Dawn at York tomorrow when the champion apprentice rides Marcus Attilius at Sligo this evening.
O’Brien has memorably already hit the Group One mark this year on board Roderic O’Connor in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and with Ryan Moore on the injury sidelines, Aidan O’Brien has entrusted the Juddmonte International ride on Await The Dawn to his teenage son. Despite the presence of the Juddmonte pair, Twice Over and Midday, Await The Dawn is an odds-on ante-post favourite in some lists and he will be joined in the six-runner race by stable companions Roderic O’Connor and Windsor Palace. Await The Dawn is already an ante-post favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt later in the season.
One of the few things the apprentice handicap at Sligo tonight has in common with the Juddmonte is the 10 furlong race distance but with Pat Flynn’s team in such good form right now, Marcus Attilius should make his presence felt after a decent run at Down Royal last time.
Johnny Murtagh has a number of fancied rides this evening and a drop back to 10 furlongs could do wonders for the mile and a quarter handicap top-weight Dawariya who disappointed over a longer distance at Galway.
Murtagh is on Narjawa in the concluding maiden but Colm O’Donoghue could have the answer to this with Smithfield.
