Aidan O’Brien assembles strongest ever squad for final international mission
Aidan O’Brien is hoping to sign off an outstanding year of success with more Group 1 glory in the last international meeting of 2023.
After winning two races at the Breeders’ Cup. the Ballydoyle maestro has assembled his strongest ever squad for the Longines Hong Kong International Races, a week on Sunday, December 10.
Luxembourg, second behind Derby and Breeders’ Cup winner Auguste Rodin in the Irish Champion Stakes last time out, heads a quartet who will contest each of the four Group 1 races.
Luxembourg, beaten only half a length by his stablemate, will line up in the £3.6 million Hong Kong Cup over 1m2f. “We were training him for the Champion Stakes in England and he got a foot bruise, it just held him up for a couple of weeks that’s why didn’t go there,” O’Brien said.
“Obviously it was a great run in the Irish Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter, he’s versatile we think and he likes nice ground. We’re looking forward to him.”
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O’Brien’s three previous wins at the fixture have all come in the 1m4f Vase for which he has nominated the filly Warm Heart, winner of the Yorkshire Oaks, and Prix Vermeilla who was only a neck behind Inspiral in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
“We were debating what we’d do, I suppose either of them could have gone either way but we just felt it was a very good run in the Irish Champion Stakes from Luxembourg,” the trainer explained.
“Warm Heart ran over ten furlongs in America but she’d won her two Group 1s over a mile and a half. She’s been very progressive, she’s thrived physically, loves nicer ground, she’s tactically quick and she doesn’t surrender. She’s been unbelievable really.”
Aidan O'Brien and jockey Ryan Moore will team up in Hong Kong (PA)Hong Kong Mile-bound Cairo was second to his prolific stablemate Paddington in the Irish 2000 Guineas and returned from a break over the European summer to finish a close third in a Listed.
“We were hopeful he’d get into Hong Kong but he had to have a run,” O’Brien said. “We were delighted with him. He obviously got a bit tired, the ground was very soft and wasn’t ideal but his run before when he was second to Paddington was on nice ground and we’ve been very happy with his work since.
“We think he’s progressed plenty. We always thought and hoped he could be a horse that could go on to a lot of those races all over the world.”
Three-year-old colt Aesop’s Fables completes the team. He finished a narrow third in two Group 1 events, behind Highfield Princess in the Prix de l’Abbaye and then Nobals in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
O’Brien said: “He’s been progressive all the time. We put the blinkers on before France, we were delighted there and then he ran a stormer in America. He’s a big horse, maybe he just took a bit of time to get the hang of it."
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