O’Brien big guns in late Champions Day switch

Aidan O’Brien has reshuffled his Qatar Racing Champions Day plans, with Gstaad set to remain over a mile in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, while Constitution River will stick to 10 furlongs for the Champion Stakes.

Earlier this week O’Brien had supplemented Constitution River into the QEII for £70,000 having said “we think we might have been doing the wrong thing” with his two star three-year-olds.

However, speaking to www.coolmore.com O’Brien announced they would be staying at their regular distances, while also stating Scandinavia, favourite for the Long Distance Cup, would not be running at the weekend.

O’Brien said: “We’ve made a few changes to the weekend’s plans for Saturday. We were going to run Gstaad in the Champion but we’ve changed it now. We’re going to leave him at the mile. We think it might not be fair to him to run in the Champion Stakes first time out (at the trip) against older horses and such a seasoned bunch.

“We think the mile at Ascot will suit him (Gstaad) very well. We were very happy with all his runs over a mile and we think the track at Ascot is going to suit him very well.

“Also we were going to run Hawk Mountain with him, maybe going back in trip might suit him. We’re happy with him also.”

Ryan Moore will ride Gstaad with Colin Keane on Hawk Mountain.

He went on: “In the Champion Stakes we’re going to run Constitution River. All of his runs over a mile and a quarter have been very good.

“We feel and think maybe the last day when he ran at Leopardstown all our horses were a little bit sick and we think that could have been a major contributing factor to his run. He’s very well since. He’s obviously a very seasoned horse now and he’s run against these horses before and beaten a few already.”

Regarding Scandinavia, however, the Gold Cup winner is now finished for the year.

“We’re thinking of running two (in the Long Distance Cup). Queenstown, who was third in the Cadran and ran a very good race, and we’re going to run Amelia Earhart as well,” said O’Brien.

“We’re not going to run Scandinavia now. He came out of Arc weekend very well but we just felt with a view to next year and there’s a little bit of rain in the forecast, that we would probably leave him for the year and start his preparation early, like we always do, for the Ascot Gold Cup next year and then hopefully go from there.”