Al Riffa To Miss Irish 2000, Royal Ascot Bid Still Possible

Al Riffa (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), winner of last year's G1 National S. and ante-post favourite for Saturday's G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas, has been ruled out of the race with “a little setback,” the Irish Field reported. While announcing that the Jassim Bin Al-Attiyah-owned colt would not make the Curragh this weekend, trainer Joseph O'Brien remains confident that the colt will make the G1 St James's Palace S. on opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting June 20. He is a 6-1 chance for that mile test ante-post with Coral.

“He has just had a little setback in training,” O'Brien told the Irish Field. “Hopefully it's nothing too serious and he will be back later in the summer. He has options at Ascot and further afield than that as well.”

Al Riffa also holds an entry for the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh July 2.

“These things happen, so it's a long way from a problem,” O'Brien continued. “It is obviously disappointing for the owners. This race has been his target for the last while, but we will look forward to things later in the summer.

“Timing-wise, Royal Ascot will be fine, but we will have to decide whether we want to run there or in other races. We'll not be rushing into any decisions.”

The defections leaves G1 English 2000 Guineas hero Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) as market leader for the Irish 2000, but he is expected to wait for the St James's Palace.

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American Owners Dreaming Of Royal Ascot With O’Brien’s Do It With Style

Royal Ascot is calling for American owner Leonard Green and his son Jonathan after Do It With Style (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}), named after the family's first Grade I winner from over 30 years ago, marked herself down as a top-notch prospect on debut for Donnacha O'Brien at the Curragh on Monday.

This is becoming a familiar success story for the Green family in Ireland who, frustrated with competing with the big guns in the sales ring back home in the States, decided to come up with a plan to concentrate on sourcing their talent elsewhere.

The link-up with O'Brien has been a natural fit and Jonathan Green is now planning a trip to the royal meeting with his family to see Do It With Style tackle the G3 Albany S. after Monday's stylish victory.

Green said, “This filly is actually named after our first Grade I winner in the States. We'd a Grade I winner called Do It With Style back in 1991 and we had been saving this name for the right kind of filly.

“When we bought this Ten Sovereigns filly, there was no discussion whatsoever, we knew she was the next one to have the Do It With Style moniker. I'm glad that she won but, internally, I'm really pleased that it looks as though she can carry the name on and hopefully be as successful as her previous namesake. That's the confidence that we had with her. If we're going to run this filly in the Albany, which I think is the plan, you will see us there in top hat and tails.”

Leonard and Jonathan Green | Fasig Tipton

The Green family need no introduction to international racing fans. Their colours were carried to victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Dirt at Keeneland last November by Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief) and the hope is that Do It With Style will eventually continue her career in America. However, Jonathan is eyeing some big-race riches in Europe along with O'Brien before that happens.

He said, “It looks like she can go on to bigger and better things. We'd like to think that she has the scope and the physical ability to cope with running here [in America] but Donnacha is going to map out a campaign for her in Europe until she shows us when it's time to possibly bring her over. We've had some success over the past few years with three-year-old fillies and won last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt with Wonder Wheel. Hopefully Do It With Style will come over here for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf later in the year but a lot of things have to happen between now and then. The next big step will probably be Royal Ascot. That is what we are communicating about right now.”

He added, “The most important thing for us was to buy a filly who we thought had some substance and athleticism and certainly, when Donnacha came to us with his shortlist of yearlings from the Orby Sale last year, she was at the top of our list. We stretched a little bit for her, spending over $200,000, but we really felt like she had the substance and the pedigree that we look for in a filly.”

Do It With Style was picked up for €235,000 to be precise. She was sourced from Coulonces at the Goffs Orby last September when the dollar was trading particularly strong compared to the euro, which helped Green in his decision to stick his neck out for the filly.

“We're businessmen by practice. My Dad [Leonard] was a CPA for over 50 years and I am a financial planner for 30 years. The dollar to euro ratio was certainly in our favour at the time. We look to spend somewhere between $150,000 to $175,000 for well-bred fillies. That's the lane that we feel comfortable in. We stretched a little bit for this filly but she really ticked all the boxes for us, both physically and on breeding.”

The Greens had a multitude of different trainers to choose from when setting out to source fillies from Ireland. So, why Donnacha O'Brien?

“Donnacha is easy,” comes the reply. “He is a young trainer who has been groomed by his Dad [Aidan] to be one of the best trainers in the country if not the world. When I interviewed him a few years ago, we just really hit it off. He's a hard-working guy and I love the fact that he has such great knowledge, not only from being around horses all of his life, but from being a top-class rider himself. I think that gives a trainer a tremendous amount of insight into how a horse is going and how it's doing.”

He added, “It was a few years ago that we decided to look for other opportunities because the American market was extremely difficult to find a top horse. Unless you were willing to partner with some of the big farms, it really wasn't financially viable so we looked elsewhere. We sat down with Kim Valerio, who is our primary agent, and put together a game plan to try and buy some fillies overseas with the plan of bringing them over here. We've had some success. “Diabolic (Ire) was a Dark Angel (Ire) filly we bought in our first year and she did well. We also purchased Papillio (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) who just won a Grade 2 at Keeneland. And now with this filly, we feel like we have a pretty good game plan with picking out young fillies who can compete overseas and here in America.”

Green admits that there is now heightened competition at the Goffs Orby Sale compared to when his family first dipped their toe in the Irish market but, through forging relationships with Coolmore and the O'Brien family, says he is hoping to continue to pick up a select amount of yearlings every year.

He said, “We felt like we were ahead of the curve three years ago by coming to Goffs and looking for our yearlings at the Orby Sale but, the last time we came over, there were 50 of us on the plane.

“People are recognising that there is tremendous value in Ireland and we love the fact that we have the opportunity to buy these fillies at Goffs or privately from the Magnier family and working with the O'Briens. Especially at Goffs, they look after us so well and roll out the red carpet every time we arrive. Charles O'Neill [CEO of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing] certainly makes us feel very comfortable there and we always love coming over to Goffs.”

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O’Brien Predicts Piz Badile Improvement Ahead Of Curragh Return

Donnacha O'Brien is predicting that Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire}) will strip a lot fitter for his comeback effort in the G3 Alleged S. at the Curragh on Sunday and identified the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup as the early-season target for last year's Irish Derby runner-up. 

The trainer also provided an upbeat bulletin on the hugely-exciting Proud And Regal (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who could get his season underway in the G3 Derrinstown Derby Trial at Leopardstown on May 7. 

Piz Badile will face just five rivals on Sunday, including likely favourite Point Lonsdale (Ire) (Australia {GB}), with O'Brien optimistic that the best may yet be to come from his charge at four. 

He said, “Piz Badile is in good form and has done very well from three to four. It will be nice to get him started and hopefully the ground dries out a little bit for him. He doesn't mind a bit of juice in the ground but I'd rather if it wasn't heavy ground. We're looking forward to the year ahead with him.”

Asked how he reflects on last season with Piz Badile, O'Brien said, “I suppose he won his Derby Trial well and then we went to Epsom for the Derby and he didn't really handle the track. He went on to run a very good race to finish second in the Irish Derby and then the ground was like flint in France for the Grand Prix de Paris. He pulled out of that race a little bit jarred which is why we gave him the rest of the year off. 

“Looking at his pedigree and even physically, he's a horse who was always going to make up into a better four-year-old, and we had that in the back of our minds even at the start of last season's campaign.

“The plan was to use this race as a prep for the Tattersalls Gold Cup, which is over the same course and distance, and I think he will come on a lot from whatever he does on Sunday. He'll come on plenty for it and is going to be a lot better on better ground.”

Proud And Regal | Scoop Dyga

O'Brien revealed that Nell Gwyn S. entry Not Even Close (Ire) (Zoustar {Aus}) is an unlikely runner at Newmarket on Wednesday but confirmed that Wodao (Fr) (Showcasing {GB}) would definitely take his chance in the G3 Prix Sigy at Chantilly on Monday. 

He said, “Wodao had a really nice comeback run behind Tenebrism (Caravaggio) at Cork. We didn't have him entered in this race but it popped up and the ground is soft over there, which will be to his liking. He takes his racing well and we thought it looked a nice opportunity to put him in. Some of the Irish sprints can be very competitive and even some of our listed races will be the equivalent Group 2s and Group 1s because of the types of horses who will be using such races as preps.”

On Not Even Close, he added, “She's a lovely filly and has done really well throughout the winter but I don't think she'll be running in the Nell Gwyn. As is the case with most of mine, we're trying to find a bit of nice ground for her somewhere, but it's been a bit of a nightmare start to the year with all of the rain that we're getting. 

“I bought her for Justin Carthy and then Qatar Racing bought into her after she won nicely at Dundalk. It's my first horse for Qatar and I think she's a smart filly. Obviously she is completely unproven at any kind of stakes grade but, on her work at home, she looks as though she can make up into a stakes filly.”

But there's no doubting the great hope for O'Brien this season is Proud And Regal, a winner of the G1 Criterium International when last seen in October.

O'Brien said, “He's a lovely horse and has done well over the winter. We didn't run him in any of the early trials as he'd have had to carry the Group 1 penalty. 

“At the minute, we're aiming him at the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, as he wouldn't have a penalty in that. We could see where we want to go with him after that. 

“He could go the Derby route or he could even drop back for something like the Irish 2,000 Guineas. But we'll start him off at Leopardstown first and then decide about where we want to go afterwards.”

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The Curragh And A.R.M. Holding Extend Partnership 

The Curragh Racecourse has extended its partnership with A.R.M. Holding, a Dubai-based multi-sector investment house, who will sponsor one of the key races on Irish Derby weekend in July.

The A.R.M. Holding Dash, run on July 2, will be run for €100,000, making it one of the richest sprint races in Ireland.

 Chaired by His Highness Sheikh Ahmad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, A.R.M. Holding was established to contribute to the growth of the Emirates through strategic investments in multiple sectors. 

In addition, Jebel Ali Racecourse and Stables, under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmad, will continue their long-standing sponsorship of the Anglesey S. which commenced in 2009. The Group 3 contest was won by Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never) in 2022, who subsequently was crowned the top rated 2-year-old in Europe. 

Commenting on the sponsorship, Mohammad Al-Shehhi, CEO of A.R.M. Holding said, “At A.R.M. Holding, we strive to encourage community involvement in sports and culture, and our partnership with The Curragh Racecourse aligns with this objective. By associating ourselves with top-tier events, we strengthen our presence and appeal to audiences globally. We are delighted to support the A.R.M Holding Dash on Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Day as part of our sponsorship efforts.”

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