Group 3 winner Facteur Cheval (Ire) (Ribchester {Ire}) will likely start next in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. on British Champions S. Day at Ascot if the anticipated wet weather holds, Team Valor's Barry Irwin said Sunday. The 4-year-old gelding was most recently third behind Sauterne (Fr) (Kingman {GB}) in the G1 Prix Du Moulin de Longchamp on Sept. 3.
“It's the plan and he could run on any type of surface, but he's better with some give in the ground and the wetter the better, like when he won the Prix Perth at Saint-Cloud,” Irwin said. “We have skipped some other races he could have run in waiting for the race next weekend figuring it would be really wet again.”
“I think at this point we're looking at it as much, if not more, as a test to see how he handles that [quicker] going at this point of his life, as our goal next year is the G1 Dubai Turf. This will be a good test to see how he handles that type of track. That mile up the straight at Ascot is more like a mile and eighth and that's the distance of the Dubai Turf.”
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