Auguste Rodin: Ballydoyle likely to consider Japan Cup for Royal Ascot hero | Racing News

The Japan Cup has emerged as a year-end option for Aidan O’Brien-trained Auguste Rodin; City Of Troy could make a stop at Southwell before embarking on a Breeders’ Cup adventure in the United States

The Japan Cup is emerging as a year-end option for Aidan O’Brien-trained Auguste Rodin, who will next be seen in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Last year’s Derby hero began his four-year-old season over a mile and a half at Meydan but has dropped back to 10 furlongs on the last two occasions, adding the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot to the Irish Champion Stakes which he won over a mile and a quarter last year.

Such was the impressive nature of his success at the Royal meeting that his connections would have been fully entitled to stay on that winning trip for the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

However, with the lure of becoming the first Derby winner since Golden Horn in 2015 to win the Eclipse, it was City Of Troy who was given the nod to travel to Sandown from Ballydoyle, with Auguste Rodin booked for a return over the 12 furlongs and at Ascot later this month.

O’Brien said: “I suppose Eclipse has been considered but the guys are making plans about what they’d like to do with them, and with Auguste Rodin, he won over a mile and a half last year and he’s an older horse, he’s had three races now and two races before Ascot.

“Ascot was his first big race target of the year and there was always the possibility that if all went well we would return to Ascot for the King George.

“Obviously the Eclipse is a very prestigious race for a three-year-old horse and there was always the possibility that if it went well in the Derby, City Of Troy would go to the Eclipse to compete against the older horses and for us to learn a little bit more about the horse and for the horse to learn a little bit more as well.

“I suppose Auguste Rodin would certainly have been in the mix for the Eclipse, but it seems like the right idea to go back to Ascot for the King George with him and the guys obviously felt it was the right decision to go with City Of Troy in the Eclipse.”

Separating Coolmore’s two most recent Epsom heroes is not easy when both bring such champion qualities, both having their names mentioned in the same breath for the Breeders’ Cup Classic last year.

But having already enjoyed success in the end-of-season turf championships in 2023, Auguste Rodin – a son of late Japanese superstar Deep Impact – could be tasked with breaking O’Brien’s duck in the Japan Cup later in the year, leaving the route to Del Mar clear for his stablemate.

“They both have different options for the second half of the season and Auguste Rodin could be a Japan Cup horse,” O’Brien continued.

“He’s already won the Breeders’ Cup and maybe the guys could do that and maybe City Of Troy could be a horse for the Classic.

“They like to play all their cards differently depending on their horses and at the same time, they like to watch the races and go to them, so they try to spread them out.”

City Of Troy’s route to Del Mar could include a trip to York next month or a first outing of the year on home soil, while the Ballydoyle master is in no rush to expose the all-conquering son of Justify to dirt ahead of a possible run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with a trip to Southwell considered to gain experience on a similar surface.

“I suppose the jump after this race would have to be either the Irish Champion Stakes or the Juddmonte International and I imagine the guys would be watching those races, not knowing or discussing what they think,” O’Brien added.

“I hope we keep him racing in this part of the world for as long as possible and I think he will be a very important horse for European pedigrees if we can keep him in this part of the world.

“We’ve had horses narrowly beaten in the Classic, the Declaration Of War and the Giant’s Causeway before and they’ve never raced on dirt before. We took them to Southwell for a gallop and I know the surface has changed there now, it’s Tapeta and it’s a bit different to Polytrack.

“Hopefully if the Eclipse goes well it will be another race and if we decide to go to America then maybe we will give him a day at Southwell or something. None of that is set in stone, what the guys think, but that is what is going through our heads at the moment.”