George trial spin on "Dirt"

[brockguy]

from the racing post..

in fairness this mean nothing.. most of O'Briens horses have done this and looked very good on it, but then when the real thing happens, they are lost.. At least it shows they are seriously thinking about the classic!!

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S ability to mount a credible challenge for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt will be tested on Friday when the colt flies to Southwell for a trial on the all-weather circuit.

He is due to team up with jockey Mick Kinane for a workout over the Fibresand course to help trainer Aidan O’Brien determine whether to divert his star three-year-old from the Mile on turf to the richest race on the Breeders’ Cup card.

George Washington is a 7-1 chance for the Classic with William Hill.

With O’Brien’s team stocked with other live Mile candidates such as Aussie Rules and Ad Valorem, the Classic emerged as a possible alternative for the Stan James 2,000 Guineas and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner after stablemate Dylan Thomas trailed in last behind US dirt star Bernardini in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Saturday.

That race was Dylan Thomas’s trial for Churchill Downs on November 4, but his complete failure to handle the dirt ended any thoughts of him challenging America’s finest in the Classic.

O’Brien said on Thursday: “We are bringing five or six horses, including George Washington, to Southwell. We want to see how George will handle what will be a new surface for him and whether we might run him in the Classic.

“Mick will ride George tomorrow and the other horses going to Southwell will include River Tiber, who made the running in the Celebration Mile at Goodwood and in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.”

The team are due on the track at about 4pm. The exercise is a familiar one to O’Brien, who last visited the Nottinghamshire track five years ago when Galileo, Mozart and Black Minnaloushe worked on the surface before they raced on the dirt at the 2001 Breeders’ Cup.

Of that trio, Galileo produced the best run to finish sixth in the Classic but a year earlier the Southwell visit proved more rewarding when Giant’s Causeway went on to run Tiznow to a neck at Churchill Downs.

O’Brien has produced a winner on the dirt when Johannesburg took the Juvenilein 2001, but has a record of six unsuccessful attempts in the Classic, despite fielding some of the stable’s best three-year-old talent in the shape of horses such as Oratorio, Hawk Wing and Hold That Tiger.

Southwell clerk of the course Jon Pullin said: “Starcraft came here a year ago but this is the first time Aidan O’Brien will have been over since 2001.

“It’s another coup for Southwell and underlines the fact that our surface is the nearest thing to American dirt in Britain or Ireland. It willgive connections the chance to see how their horses will handle kickback and we are delighted to be able to offer our services so that they can go to America to take on the best horses in the world.”

It is understood that Kieren Fallon will not be applying for a licence to ride at the Breeders' Cup and that he will travel to Australia well in advance of the Melbourne Cup on November 7.

Fallon will ride Yeats in work in the lead-up to the big race and could also pick up rides from local trainers LeeFreedman and David Hayes, both of whom train for Coolmore, to familiarise himself with Flemington.