Aidan O'Brien has confirmed that Ciro will try and break Ballydoyle's classic duck for the season in Sunday's Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly.
The Prix Lupin winner will also have a Group One colleague, as Bach will take his chance in the Prix Jean Prat on the same card.
Giant's Causeway and Amethyst provided O'Brien a couple of second placings in the Irish Guineas races over the weekend which, thrown in with Giant's Causeway's placing at Newmarket and Monashee Mountain's defeat in the French Guineas, has meant a frustrating opening to the season for the O'Brien horses.
'All going well the plan is to run Ciro in the French Derby. He has pleased us since his last race and he seems to like France. Bach will run in the nine-furlong race,' said O'Brien yesterday.
In the meantime, the unique challenge that is beach racing at Laytown presents itself this afternoon when six races will be run on the strand's 132nd anniversary of racing.
A temporary 400-seat stand will be erected near the finishing line and a big screen is also planned to increase the viewing options for the crowd which always contains more than it's share of casual racegoers.
To facilitate them a special train will leave Dublin's Pearse St station at 1.17 this afternoon, with a return fare of £7.50. Trains are also running from Dundalk and Drogheda.
On the racing front, proven form on the sand is always a big advantage and that should see Iftatah with a big chance in the qualified riders' handicap.
Kevin Prendergast's horse has won at Laytown for the last two years, including winning over a mile last year off a mark of 53. He goes today off a mark of 49 and must have a big chance.
Another with course and distance winning form is the veteran My Trivet who should be sharper now for a run behind Willyever and has the early pace to go very close in the opener; while My Trivet's trainer Jim Gorman has good chances of doubling up with the Dundalk runner-up Celtic Slip in the seven-furlong handicap.
The reserves for the seven-furlong maiden command more than the usual attention and they include Institutrice, who once ran the Group One winner Sunspangled to half a length at Galway. But one of the original 10, Amelesa, is suggested as a possible winner.
