Joseph O’Brien has never been shy of an international challenge and the lucrative Saudi Cup meeting is fixed firmly on his agenda a week Saturday when three horses from his Carriganóg operation will make up three-quarters of Ireland’s raiding party.
The two-time Melbourne Cup-winning trainer told Idol Horse that Al Riffa, Trustyourinstinct, and Apples And Bananas will arrive in Riyadh about a week out from their assignments. Japanese legend Yutaka Take will take the reins again on Al Riffa and the stable’s two-time champion apprentice and all-round rising star Dylan Browne McMonagle will partner the other two.
Al Riffa was last seen in October when finishing a dour 11th in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but is a proven top-class galloper: winner of the G1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes as a juvenile, close runner-up to City Of Troy in last summer’s G1 Eclipse Stakes, and victorious again at the highest level in the Grosser Preis von Berlin.
The five-year-old will contest the G2 Neom Turf Cup over 2100m, worth US$2 million, as will Trustyourinstinct. The expected line-up also features the Yoshito Yahagi-trained Shin Emperor, a length behind Al Riffa in the Arc, and the one-two-three from last year’s Neom Turf Cup, Spirit Dancer, Killer Ability and Calif.
“We are pleased with Al Riffa,” O’Brien said. “He just didn’t get the rub of the green in the Arc and that’s fine, that’s the Arc, we’ve regrouped and he’s training well in preparation for this race. It’s a left-handed track there in Saudi, a lovely surface, and we’d be hopeful that wouldn’t pose him any issues.”
Take returned to action at Tokyo last weekend, after two weeks out, nailing two wins on Sunday, February 9. The 55-year-old partnered Al Riffa in a gallop prior to riding the son of Wootton Bassett in the Arc and O’Brien believes those experiences will have helped cement the partnership.
“Yutaka Take is going to ride him, he got a good feel of him in France and it’s great to have his assistance,” he said. “There’s no substitute for riding a horse in a race like that, so it’s helpful that he’s had that opportunity to ride him in a race already and knows the horse.”
“Trustyourinstinct will run in that race as well. He’s going in off the back of a good run in Italy, in a Group 2, he just got beaten in a head-bob. He’s a likeable horse and we’re hoping that he would be able to perform well too and get a share of the prizemoney.”
Trustyourinstinct progressed throughout last season, having spent the previous winter racing over hurdles, and wound up winning a Leopardstown Group 3 as well as running that head second to Petit Marin in the Premio Roma. Around the time of last year’s Neom Turf Cup, the JP McManus-owned gelding was placing third in a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle race at Naas.
“He started off pretty well on the flat as a three-year-old, he won a Curragh maiden on debut and progressed from there, and then he went over hurdles and wasn’t as prolific in that sphere as maybe we hoped he might be,” O’Brien said. “We transferred back to the flat and since then he’s really been on an upward curve and he’s coming off the back of a career-best effort, or certainly it’s right up there with his career bests.”
Meanwhile, Apples And Bananas will enter the unknown in the G3 Saudi Derby on the Riyadh dirt track.
“That surface is unknown but he’s a durable, tough, likeable and consistent horse,” O’Brien said. “He’s quick away from the gates and he has the attributes that we think will give him a chance to handle the dirt.”
The colt collected a hat-trick of wins last term and closed out with a good third of six behind the Aidan O’Brien-trained pair Twain and Mount Kilimanjaro in the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, France, on heavy going. That was over the Saudi Derby distance of a mile.
“I thought he handled the heavy ok, there’s no shame in being third in a Group 1 race and he acquitted himself well all the way to the line, beating some good horses, so we were satisfied with that run and we thought it was up to scratch. It was a good way to finish the season after having a good year,” O’Brien continued.
Apples And Bananas is out of a mare that was bred and raced by the late Aga Khan, his second dam being a half-sister to the owner-breeder’s brilliant Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sinndar.
“He has a lovely deep pedigree, plenty of stamina in there and he’s by a sensational sire, Wootton Bassett, so he’s a well-bred colt and he’s performed on the track like one,” the trainer added.
Dubai’s big event on April 5 could be next for both Apples And Bananas and Al Riffa, but the focus is firmly Saudi for now.
“The UAE Derby is potentially an option for Apples And Bananas but we’ll see how he goes in Saudi,” O’Brien added. “With Al Riffa, I think we’ll take it race by race, but if things happen to go very well in Saudi then it would be logical to have a look at Dubai and then we’d be heading into the European season from there.”
Ireland’s only other Saudi Cup meeting contender is Aidan O’Brien’s Continuous in the G2 Red Sea Turf Handicap ∎
