Head full of excitement at what the future might hold for Avec Toi Avec Toi will be given a first taste of ParisLongchamp in the Prix La Rochette on Sunday week, as trainer Christopher Head prepares to step him up to Group One company at the Arc meeting. The Chantilly trainer has made no attempt to disguise how highly he rates the Coolmore-owned son of Now Nay Never, who is unbeaten in three starts, labelling him a “machine” following his latest win. But Head is keen to boost his experience ahead of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on October 4, with a sighter around the Paris track before letting him loose on the season’s best colts. “Avec Toi will be having a run in the Prix La Rochette on September 6 to make him discover the path of Longchamp in order to go to the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere afterwards. It is the perfect timing,” said Head. Deauville Triumph Signals Group One Potential The imposing two-year-old has looked a potential star in the making in winning three races, making his debut at Saint-Cloud in June before landing Listed and Group Three contests at Deauville. Last time out he was a comfortable four-length winner from Silver Dominion in the Prix Francois Boutin under Pierre-Charles Boudot. “Avec Toi has been a brilliant colt since the beginning of the season. He has done everything perfectly well and is showing it in races,” Head continued. “He shows us a lot of good things at home and is a top-class colt who has been very special from the beginning. He does everything so calm and has the perfect mentality to be a Group One horse.” Classic Ambitions and Guineas Targets on the Horizon Head is well aware of the perils of getting too far ahead of oneself in horse racing, but he is already planning a major target in the spring of his three-year-old career. “We are excited about next season, of course, but we take the races as they come because you never know what could happen. We are thinking about the next season in order to aim him at the right place,” he said. “He definitely has the attitude to go up to a mile. When you run seven furlongs in a straight line, it is pretty much mile races.” He added: “We are definitely going to aim at something huge for the beginning of next season and we will see with the owners want to do regarding him, but he will definitely go to the UK at some point.” All roads would seem to point to a crack at the 2000 Guineas then. “It will depend where the owners want to go,” said Head. “But if we really have the horse to do it, definitely we will take that bet.”
