By Daithi Harvey
Next Saturday's G1 QIPCO Irish Champion S. has been decided as the objective for Study Of Man (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) after connections eschewed probably an easier option closer to home in the following day's G2 Prix Niel at ParisLongchamp. The Pascal Bary trained colt looked set for a glorious season when winning the G1 QIPCO Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in June and on the face of it was quite disappointing when a well-beaten third to Knight To Behold (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano Haras du Logis Saint-Germain at Deaville last month. However a Leopardstown oriented workout earlier this week left connections confident the Niarchos family's home-bred will prove a worthy opponent to Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy) et al in Dublin at the weekend in a race that has gone for export the last six years. Speaking to the Racing Post Alan Cooper, racing manager to the owners explained, “We got permission from France Galop to go left-handed at [Les Aigles training track], which is the same direction as Leopardstown, and all went very well. Stephane [Pasquier] was very pleased with how the horse had progressed from Deauville. In hindsight we left him a bit underdone and he really did need the race and we're looking forward to Leopardstown.”
Interestingly Pascal Bary's last runner in Ireland was Six Perfections (Fr) (Celtic Swing {GB}) who finished an unlucky second in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas back in 2003. She was also owned by the Niarchos family and in the subsequent 15 years Six Perfections has become the dam of the Aidan O'Brien trained full-brothers Yucatan (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and recent impressive Curragh maiden winner Mount Everest (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), among others.
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