Group 1 winner Proud And Regal (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), third in Leopardstown's G3 Derby Trial S., will cut back in trip for the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas in late May, trainer Donnacha O'Brien revealed on Tuesday.
“I thought he travelled really well [at Leopardstown],” said O'Brien. “There's definitely a chance that he will get 10 furlongs and we could be going back there after the Guineas, but the plan is to go to the Curragh for the Irish Guineas.”
Raced by the Coolmore partners, the 2022 G1 Criterium International hero was second in the G2 Futurity S. in August and second in the G1 National S. at the Curragh a month later, prior to his Saint-Cloud heroics. A winner of the G3 Tyros S. in July, Proud And Regal's Derby Trial effort was his most recent.
O'Brien also gave an update on Listed Dee S. runner-up Alder (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who will travel to Epsom Downs for the G1 Betfred Derby on the first Saturday in June.
“We're aiming at the Epsom Derby,” he added. “I think it is an open race. I think he got in a poor position at Chester off a very slow pace, on ground he wouldn't like, and he just hung in behind the winner in the last furlong.
“But I think it was a very decent run from him. We think he's a good horse and he's going to be a much better horse on better ground over a mile and a half.”
As a juvenile, Alder was third in the G2 KPMG Champions Juvenile S., and won his 3-year-old bow, a 10-furlong race at Cork, in April.
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