O’Brien’s Futurity trio look to seal trainers’ title Aidan O’Brien will saddle three of the seven runners in his pursuit of a 13th victory in the William Hill Futurity Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday. Success in the final Group One of the season will go a long way to ensuring the master of Ballydoyle is crowned British champion trainer for a ninth time and he holds a strong hand, with hot favourite Noble Exhibit joined by stable companions Giant Sequoia and Sergei Diaghilev. Futurity Trophy and Championship Stakes Noble Exhibit finished a promising third on his Curragh debut in August and has since impressed in winning at Punchestown and in the Group Two Beresford Stakes back at the Curragh four weeks ago. Giant Sequoia won the Futurity Stakes in Ireland, but needs to bounce back from a disappointing run when only sixth in the National Stakes, with Sergei Diaghilev sent back into battle a fortnight after finishing a neck second to Rock Montreal in the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket. Andrew Balding relies on the once-raced Salisbury novice winner Gran Dia as he looks to keep his championship hopes alive. Despite enjoying a Group One winner with Mount Atlas on British Champions Day at Ascot last weekend, the Kingsclere handler conceded the advantage in the title race to O’Brien. However, Balding has also tasted notable success in Town Moor’s £275,000 contest thanks to Elm Park (2014) and Kameko (2019), and connections of Gran Dia are keen test their colt’s capabilities at the highest level before the season draws to a close. Kingsclere Challenge and Learning Curve Sean Graham, racing manager for Tony Bloom who owns the 380,000 guineas buy alongside Ian McAleavy, said: “After he won at Salisbury we discussed the options and in reality there is a shortage of races he could run in. They’ve been very happy with him at Andrew’s since Salisbury and the plan is to run. “He’s a horse who has won a maiden going straight into a Group One and we’re under no illusions how difficult that will be, but we want to give him a second run before the end of the year and we’re short of options unless you wanted to travel with him. “We’re going to be taking on battle-hardened two-year-olds who have runs under their belt and our fellow has only had one, so it will be very much a learning curve for him. But we hope he goes there and shows enough to think we can be dreaming with him over the winter.” The pick of the home team appears to be Karl Burke’s dual Haydock winner and Royal Lodge runner-up Burning Up, while joint-trainer William Muir has made no secret of the regard in which he holds Breacher, who promises to be suited by the step up to a mile having finished third behind Desert Castle and Sergei Diaghilev in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. The small but select field is completed by Al Hudaiba, who claimed his fourth win from six career starts in a Grade One at Woodbine last month.
