Continuous to Return ‘Home’ for Japan Cup

The St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn), a son of the late Shadai stallion Heart's Cry (Jpn), is set to return to the land of his birth to take on Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in the Japan Cup on November 26.

Fifth in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after his Classic success, the colt missed Saturday's Champion S. with a raised temperature.

“But he's back fine, he's back cantering again, so the plan with him is to go to the Japan Cup,” said trainer Aidan O'Brien on Racing TV. 

“We were delighted with his run in the Arc. Ryan [Moore] took his time, like he always does with him, and the pace just went a little bit slow in the middle of the race and that was the way it was, but he came home very well.”

Moore is familiar with Tokyo racecourse and was aboard last year's Japan Cup winner Vela Azul (Jpn) (Eishin Flash {Jpn}) for trainer Kunihiko Watanabe. Continuous's sire ran in three consecutive Japan Cups and was beaten just a nose when second to the Luca Cumani-trained Alkaased in 2005.

O'Brien added, “It's a race we've never won and you need a good horse to win it, so it would be great if we could be competitive in it.

“It'll suit him all right, because he's a good traveller, he can handle fast and soft ground, it doesn't matter. He's got a great mind and he's got a lot of ability that horse – he's probably better than everyone thinks he is.”

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Continuous and Fantastic Moon Added to Arc Line-Up

The three-year-old colts Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), winners of the St Leger and Deutsches Derby respectively, have been supplemented for Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Sixteen horses remain engaged for the weekend's €5 million showcase race at ParisLongchamp. Eleven of the potential field are already Group 1 winners, including another Classic-winning colt of 2023, the unbeaten Prix du Jockey Club hero Ace Impact (Ire) (Cracksman {GB}), who is currently favourite.

With Emily Dickinson (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) holding multiple entries at the Arc meeting, Continuous is likely to be the sole runner for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore team in the big race and will aim to build on his Classic success at Doncaster 15 days prior to the Arc.

Fantastic Moon, who was ruled out of an Arc bid only last week through fears of soft ground, will now travel to Paris from Munich and will be ridden by Rene Piechulek, who won the race two years ago aboard Torquator Tasso (Ger). Owned by the Liberty Racing 2021 syndicate, Fantastic Moon is set to remain in training next year.

His trainer Sarah Steinberg said, “Fantastic Moon is in excellent form. He worked very well yesterday and handled the workout very well. We continue to hope for sunshine and good ground conditions in Paris for him to be able to call up his best form. We thought long and hard about which of the races would be the best for Fantastic Moon, and together with the owners we decided against a long trip to the US or Japan for Fantastic Moon this year. 

“We will take advantage of the beautiful fall weather in Paris, the dried-up turf at Longchamp and a horse that has recovered very quickly after his last race.  A trip to the Breeders' Cup at the beginning of November, or travelling to Japan at the end of November, places an enormous burden on three-year-old horses, which we do not want to expose Fantastic Moon to. 

She added, “The horse has shown everyone that he is a real star, and we are looking forward to his last outing in 2023 on Sunday in ParisLongchamp. I hope that the German turf fans will keep their fingers crossed for our Derby winner, and I am looking forward to a very exciting race against internationally accomplished top opponents.”

 

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Classic Winners On Course For Arc

The St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) remains on course to attempt an historic follow-up in the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe next Sunday. The colt, who also won the G2 Great Voltigeur S. on good to firm ground at York en route to his Classic triumph in much softer conditions, would need to be supplemented for the Arc on Wednesday at a cost of €120,000.

Speaking on Sunday afternoon, his trainer Aidan O'Brien told TDN, “The plan is for him to run in the Arc as long as everything remains well with him up to the supplementary stage. He appears to have come out of Doncaster very well and we don't feel that he is ground-dependent.”

Also heading towards Longchamp next weekend is the 2021 Deutsches Derby winner Sisfahan (Fr) (Isfahan {Ger}) following his late scratching from Sunday's G1 Preis von Europa over ground concerns.

Holger Faust, racing manager for Sisfahan's owner Darius Racing, said, “Due to the fact that the ground in Cologne has received more water in the last few days than was previously expected and is now stated as soft, Sisfahan was withdrawn this morning and is now scheduled to race next Sunday in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In Paris, as of today, the ground, the track and the expected fast pace of the race should suit him.”

Another Classic winner given a positive update ahead of next Sunday's big race is Juddmonte's Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}), last season's Irish Derby winner, who later finished sixth in the Arc. Successful in this year's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud before finishing a close second to Hukum (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., the Ralph Beckett trainee has recently been given a racecourse gallop followed by a trip to the beach.

“Westover went to Salisbury last Friday and to Hayling Island beach this Friday and both exercises went well,” said Beckett.

“It suited him to just take the edge off him ahead of Longchamp and he's shown he can handle any ground between the extremes.”

It is expected to be a largely dry week in Paris, with the long-range forecast showing the possibility of some rain on Saturday morning. 

 

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A Continuous Quest for New Frontiers

The Corinthian quest is finding life tough. These days romance is run off its legs by finance. Victory for Continuous in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, though, 15 days after his St Leger win, would make history of the most reassuring kind.

Each week frontiers in sport are crossed: stats shredded, records set, barriers smashed. With every new 'first' the surviving 'nevers' gain mystique. Racing still has a few. No horse has won the St Leger and the Arc in the same season. It was hard enough already with a three-week gap. This year Continuous could be squeezing it into a fortnight.

Enhancing the intrigue is the knowledge that Continuous's owners are not sentimental strategists. Stirring the public's imagination isn't the first job of an Aidan O'Brien horse in Coolmore colours. If it happens, all well and good. The priorities though are winning, prize-money and stud values.

Yet every now and then we see an illustrious O'Brien Thoroughbred chase something grander than commercial worth. Continuous is on that path. Before him, O'Brien's Camelot was appointed to become the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1970. A three-quarter length defeat to the 25-1 shot Encke in the Leger was the resting place for that noble dream.

Avoidance is a modern reflex. In heavyweight boxing risk-aversion has addled the sport's marquee division. Real Madrid can't decline a Clasico fixture with Barcelona. But in racing horses can be confined to comfort zones. Derby winners may be chauffeured off to covering sheds to avert the possibility of defeat.  In National Hunt racing last week the announcement that Constitution Hill would stick to hurdling this season was not well-received by armchair proponents of boldness. Their horse, their choice, is the riposte.

Victory in Paris would add lustre too to the St Leger in an age when the case for stamina as a glamorous attribute feels harder and harder to win

Yet 'the lads,' as O'Brien calls the Coolmore team, are sometimes true to Saul Bellow's line: “A man's life is not a business.”  Their reaction to Camelot's defeat at Doncaster was not to give up on the Triple Crown. Only six months ago it was the target set for Auguste Rodin, who crashed out at stage one, in the 2,000 Guineas, but progressed nevertheless to stardom. 

O'Brien's last four St Leger winners all tried their luck straight away at Longchamp. Kew Gardens (seventh), Capri (17th), Leading Light (12th) and Scorpion (10th) proceeded to Paris. None made it seem a good idea; but Continuous, you sense, would travel to France with more authority and a bigger chance.

“He's a hardy horse and he could back up,” O'Brien said after the seventh St Leger win of his training career. Continuous has speed to go with his stamina and the mark of an autumn horse. He began 2023 underwhelmingly with three defeats but now acts like the boss. Within days of his Doncaster win he had shortened from 12-1 to 8-1 for the Arc.

So, let's line up the historians by Longchamp's winning post? Maybe, but at their own risk of having an idle day. Ballymoss won the 1957 Leger and the 1958 Arc but had a year in between to think about it. The demands of a 1m 6f Classic for three-year-olds are distinct from an all-age European championship over a mile and a half. It's not an obvious progression, especially with the proliferation of big autumn targets, which were less numerous in Nijinsky's time.

By any measure the Arc is a gruelling race to win. And at the end of a hard campaign we enter the realm of the unknowable, unseeable vulnerabilities veiled by form. Eight horses have won the Arc twice but none has scored a treble. When Enable tried, many reasons could be found for thinking her brilliance would carry her. When she failed, it seemed strangely obvious that it was a mission too far. There is a reason why frontiers stay uncrossed. It's because they're beyond equine endurance, even with the best pedigrees, trainers and jockeys to call on, though Nijinsky's pomp was finally ended in 1970 not by fatigue so much as a narrow tactical defeat in the Arc.

O'Brien has harvested English and Irish Classics but could be said to have something of an itch, by his standards, at Longchamp. Most trainers would retire content with two Arc wins (Dylan Thomas in 2007 and Found in 2016). You might have a small bet however on O'Brien being desperate to bring his Arc record closer to his extraordinary tally of English and Irish Classic wins.

A €120,000 supplementary fee four days before the Arc would buy him another ticket to ride, with a Japanese-bred horse by Heart's Cry. And victory in Paris would add lustre too to the St Leger in an age when the case for stamina as a glamorous attribute feels harder and harder to win.

It is the way of modern sport that people talk less these days of “making history,” except as a sardine tossed to the media, or with one eye on the financial rewards. But when racehorses make history, we sure as hell honour it. We remember the trailblazers more keenly – and with gratitude. They answer the heart's cry.

 

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