Connections of 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner Minding are considering pitching the daughter of Galileo in against the colts in next weekend’s Irish Champion Stakes.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien revealed that while Minding holds an entry in the Matron Stakes – for fillies and mares – on the same Leopardstown card, her owners are very much exploring the option of running in the Champion Stakes instead.
With the race just over a week away, the Ballydoyle handler says no firm decision has yet been reached. Minding has not been seen since recording a straightforward success in Goodwood’s Nassau Stakes at the end of July but O’Brien suggests she is thriving. “She’ll run in either the Matron or the Champion Stakes.
The lads (owners) will make the decision closer the time, but it’s very possible she’ll go to the Champion Stakes,” O’Brien told At The Races.
“We’re very happy with her. She’s had a nice bit of time since [her last run]. “Her work is very good and physically she’s doing very well.”
If she pitches up in the Irish Champion Stakes, Minding faces a potential collision with dual English and Irish Derby hero Harzand. Dermot Weld’s colt is on course to return to action at Leopardstown ahead of his planned raid on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Chantilly in October.
Minding has racked up four Group 1 successes this season already, with her sole defeat of the campaign coming in the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh in May.
That setback, when she went down by just a head to Jet Setting, came on soft ground. The current forecast suggests Minding will get a decent surface at Leopardstown next week for her chosen target.
Harzand is a 7.00 chance to win the Arc while Minding can be backed at 9.00.
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