Minnie Hauk could return to action at Chester

Star older filly Minnie Hauk and Derby favourite Benvenuto Cellini are among the horses Aidan O’Brien is considering for the Boodles May Festival at Chester.

Minnie Hauk kicked off a fantastic three-year-old campaign with victory in the Cheshire Oaks on the Roodee last spring, going on to complete the English-Irish Oaks double before beating her elders in the Yorkshire Oaks in high summer.

She was narrowly denied by Daryz in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and while she signed off with a slightly disappointing effort at the Breeders’ Cup, O’Brien is looking forward to her return, with the Group Two Huxley Stakes on May 8 identified as a possible starting point.

“Minnie Hauk is definitely a possible for the Huxley – she has no penalty in it,” the Ballydoyle handler said during a Chester-organised stable visit on Monday.

“She needs to have a run around that time as the plan with her is to go to the Tattersalls Gold Cup and she needs to have a run before it.”

Wherever Minnie Hauk kicks off her season, O’Brien is confident she can again make her mark at Group One level.

He added: “Her plan is to start somewhere, then the Tattersalls and then the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. After that whether we go in a King George or give her an Arc prep, we’ll see. Hopefully we might get back there (ParisLongchamp), but it’s a long way to the Arc.

“Physically she’s done great and has really changed from three to four, which horses don’t always do but she has. We couldn’t be happier with her really.”

O’Brien had been eyeing the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom as a prep race for the premier Classic for Benvenuto Cellini, who is the 5-1 Derby favourite with bet365.

However, with that Listed event rescheduled due to an irrigation problem at the Surrey circuit, the Frankel colt could now be part of the trainer’s Chester team.

“Benvenuto Cellini might go to the Chester Vase on the way to Epsom. He’s done very well, we’re very happy with him – he’s a lovely, slick moving horse,” O’Brien continued.

“He was going to go to Epsom, but obviously that has been put back a week now and that might mean we go to Chester instead.”

Other potential Chester contenders for the meeting which runs from May 6 to May 8 include another possible Derby contender in Constitution River and Jan Brueghel, who could warm up for the defence of his Coronation Cup crown in the Ormonde Stakes.

Considering some of his potential plans, O’Brien said: “Chester is a great place to wake them up and get an edge back on them, usually the ground is perfect and they come out of their races very well. There’s also a great atmosphere there, which horses really benefit from.

“Constitution River we think is a very good horse. He hasn’t run this year and we view him as probably a French Derby horse.

“Obviously they can’t all go to Epsom, so he could go to the Dee Stakes and then have the option of going to Epsom or France. We always thought a lot of him.

“Italy could go to the Dee Stakes as well. He had a run in the Ballysax and was just ready to start. He can be a little bit keen so we tried to get him to relax and he did do that.

“I couldn’t get him to relax last year and he was probably mentally immature. He’s better this year, but he still wants to go a bit.

“Jan Brueghel’s plan is to go back to the Coronation and the Ormonde Stakes might suit as a perfect prep for that. St Nicholas Abbey went from the Ormonde back to Epsom, so that’s what we might do with him.

“He’s a mile and a half horse, although we know he stays further. The plan with him and Lambourn is to go to the Coronation and he (Lambourn) could have a prep run in the Mooresbridge. If Minnie Hauk was running in that, Lambourn would be running for the runner-up spot behind her.”

One of the trainer’s most exciting three-year-old fillies this season is Amelia Earhart, who was fitted with headgear for her Monday morning workout but is clearly held in high regard by O’Brien and also has the option of lining up at Chester.

“We always thought the world of Amelia last year. She is a bit strange and a bit quirky and it just took her a while to get it together – she swerved a few times when she hit the front – but we think she’s a very high-class filly,” O’Brien went on.

“We always thought we’d start her in the Cheshire Oaks and maybe go on to Epsom after that. She’s a big, powerful filly and we’re looking forward to her.

“She was wearing a hood and blinkers and we took the hood off today and just left the blinkers on. It’s not that she’s ungenuine, but she looks back, so it’s just to try and stop her from doing that.”