James Doyle will renew his partnership with Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal) in Sunday’s G1 Prix du Moulin at ParisLongchamp, which frees up William Buick to ride Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in next Saturday’s G1 Irish Champion S. should the 5-year-old take up that assignment.
As an elite sportsman, Doyle will need to quarantine for eight days upon returning to the UK from France and provide two negative COVID-19 tests. Ireland’s quarantine rules were adjusted on Thursday to allow jockeys to travel to the country to ride at Group 1 meetings, paving the way for Buick to ride Ghaiyyath.
“We are in a very privileged position to have two retained world-class jockeys in James and William,” said trainer Charlie Appleby. “We have looked at the logistics of it all and hopefully how it’s going to work out. James is going to France on Sunday to ride Pinatubo, who he knows equally as well as William. James rode him during the week and was very pleased with him. James also rides the 2-year-old on Sunday [Naval Crown in the G3 Prix la Rochette], so he’ll have two mounts. We have runners in France later in the week, but we’ll make a decision over the weekend on whether he’ll stay or come back and start his quarantine.”
Doyle rode Pinatubo in his first four starts last year, all wins, including the Listed Chesham S. and G2 Vintage S.
“I haven’t ridden him since Goodwood last year, so it will be great to get back on board,” Doyle said. “I sat on him on Wednesday morning and he seems in good shape. There’s only the six runners on Sunday, but I think they’ve won 14 Group 1s between them, so it’s a pretty strong renewal to say the least. It would be great to get that Group 1 win over a mile with him. I’ll be having a week off when I come back from France, but if any horse is worth it, you’d think it would be Pinatubo.”
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