Trainer Aidan O'Brien confirmed Tuesday that his star 3-year-old miler Gleneagles (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will be aimed at the Oct. 31 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland, adding further luster to a potentially mouth-watering lineup that could include Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), this year's GI Whitney H. and GI Met Mile victor Honor Code (A.P. Indy) and star mare Beholder (Henny Hughes).
Gleneagles is slated to run in the Sept. 12 G1 Irish Champion S., with the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. on Champions Day Oct. 17 the backup plan if the ground comes up too soft next weekend. The 1 1/4-mile Irish Champion S. would be Gleneagles's first time racing beyond a mile, which is also the distance of the QEII.
“Given suitable ground, Gleneagles will run in the Irish Champion S. on Saturday week and, failing that, he will be aimed at the Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot in October,” said O'Brien. “His end-of-season target is the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland, where he may face American Pharoah.”
Gleneagles has won this year's G1 2000 Guineas, G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S., but has not been seen since the St James's Palace June 16, with soft conditions ruling him out of three recent Group 1s.
“When he won the Guineas at Newmarket the ground was good to firm,” O'Brien explained. “When he won the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh the ground was on the soft side of good–only his class got him home.”
Gleneagles is out of a full-sister to Giant's Causeway (Storm Cat), who won the Irish Champion for O'Brien in 2000 before finishing second in that year's QEII and Breeders' Cup Classic.
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