Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), winner of the G1 Prix de Royallieu and the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. this month, will bypass this year's Breeders' Cup with a 4-year-old campaign in mind.
“She's not going to the Breeders' Cup–I don't think it would be fair,” said trainer David Menuisier. “If the filly was four and it was her last ever race, maybe we would have rolled the dice, but in this instance I think it would be greed. I would be scared to ask too much of her and it's a long way, especially to Kentucky because you have to catch a flight from Amsterdam to New York and then another flight from there. There's no direct flight, so it would be quite daunting for a youngster.”
Menuisier had previously mentioned next year's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as a goal, but he said options are open as to how Wonderful Tonight will arrive there.
“It's early days, let's get through the winter and think about it next year,” he said. “The programme will be written for her really, because being a Group 1 winner you don't have many choices. Early in the season you have the [G1] Prix Ganay at Longchamp and the [G2] Dahlia S. at Newmarket, and we'll see where we go from there. We hope she'll be running in the Arc next October, and before that you have either the [G1] Prix Vermeille or the [G1] Irish Champion S., or there's the big race in Germany, the [G1] Grosser Preis von Baden.
“How we get to the end of next year, I don't know yet, it will all depend on the weather. If Royal Ascot is wet we could think about that, or there's the [G1] King George at Ascot at the end of July. For the moment, we'll reflect on how good the year has been this year, enjoy it and reload for next year.”
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