Moyglare Stud Stakes

[NoChanceToDance]

Benbaun a breeders cup possible

From RP..........
by Tom Peacock



AS one door closes, another looks set to open for Benbaun, who completed a hat-trick in the Flying Five at the Curragh on Sunday.

Owing to the current outbreak of equine influenza in Japan, the six-year-old son of Stravinsky is set to miss an intended trip to the Sprinters' Stakes.

However, trainer Mark Wallace is still thinking in global terms and is now eyeing a crack on the dirt at the Breeders' Cup Sprint before a return visit to the Hong Kong Sprint in December.

“He's some horse to be able to win a race like that three years in a row,” said Wallace. “He would nearly have won it four years in a row but for losing by a head. We were giving Dandy Man 3lb as well.

“The plan is to take him back to the Curragh in two weeks for the Renaissance Stakes and then I might shoot for the stars and go for the Breeders' Cup.

“Those Stravinskys will go on dirt, and there would be a lot worse horses who have tried their luck in the sprint.

“Plan A had been Japan, but through no fault of our own it looks like it will be knocked on the head, because I think it may be called off.

“It's not certain, but the Breeders' might be our plan B before we go on to Hong Kong again.”