It’s just over two weeks until Chester’s coveted Boodles May Festival and Aidan O’Brien has pinpointed Minnie Hauk and Benvenuto Cellini among his entrants.
Minnie Hauk began her sensational three-year-old campaign on the Roodee with a gutsy win in the Cheshire Oaks. That was the first leg of a remarkable Oaks quadruple. The Frankel filly followed up in the Epsom Oaks, before victories at the Curragh and York.
She was agonisingly beaten in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, before looking over the top when sixth in the Breeders Cup Turf. At a Chester-focused stable visit on Monday morning, via Racing TV, Aidan O’Brien discussed her plans: “Minnie Hauk is definitely a possible for the Huxley – she has no penalty in it” said O’Brien.
“She needs to have a run around that time as the plan with her is to go to the Tattersalls Gold Cup. She needs to have a run before it. Her plan is to start somewhere, then the Tattersalls and then the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. After that whether we go in a King George or give her an Arc prep, we’ll see. Hopefully we might get back there but it’s a long way to the Arc.
O’Brien eyeing up rescheduled Blue Riband for Derby favourite
With irrigation issues at Epsom, Chester have taken on their Listed Blue Riband Trial. Third in the Futurity last season, Frankel colt Benvenuto Cellini may solidify his Derby credentials on the Roodee. “Benvenuto Cellini might go to the Chester Vase on the way to Epsom” said O’Brien. “He’s done very well, we’re very happy with him – he’s a lovely, slick moving horse. He was going to go to Epsom. But obviously that has been put back a week now and that might mean we go to Chester instead.”
Aidan O’Brien is planning to bring a strong squad to Chester, a course that historically has provided him with both immediate and subsequent success. Constitution River may go to the Dee Stakes, won last year by the yards Mount Kilimanjaro. “Constitution River we think is a very good horse. He hasn’t run this year and we view him as probably a French Derby horse,” said O’Brien.
“Italy could go to the Dee Stakes as well,” noted the Ballydoyle handler. “He had a run in the Ballysax and was just ready to start. He can be a little bit keen so we tried to get him to relax and he did do that.”
O’Brien won the Ormonde Stakes with Illinois last season, and Jan Brueghel may begin his campaign there. “Jan Brueghel’s plan is to go back to the Coronation and the Ormonde Stakes might suit as a perfect prep for that. St Nicholas Abbey went from the Ormonde back to Epsom, so that’s what we might do with him.”