Aidan O'Brien is up to his old tricks again and this time around in the rescheduled Vertem Futurity Stakes on Friday at Newcastle on the all weather where he currently holds nine entries.
O'Brien has landed the last two renewals of this Group One contest but with it being the first black type race to ever take place on the all weather in Britain it could allow for some unexpected results.
The original running of the race was supposed to take place at Doncaster last Saturday where there was a final field of six runners with the Irishman holding five of the entries.
However with the meeting being abandoned the race venue has been changed to Newcastle on Friday afternoon on the all weather surface and there now a total of 17 entered for the Group One.
O'Brien could now see Mogul, Innisfree, Iberia and Royal County Down but not Louisiana entered into the cost and they were his original runners in what was supposed to be last weeks renewal.
However, they could all now be joined by other stablemates Hong Kong, New World Tapestry, San Pedro, Wichita and Year Of The Tiger.
(Credit At The Races) O’Brien told Sky Sports Racing: “Obviously the turf is what we would have preferred, but that’s just not the way it is.“Newcastle, I think, is a very good all-weather track.
O'Brien has only ever had one runner at the track in his career so it will still be a new experience for the trainer being at the northern course.
Another horse from original line up was Andrew Balding's Kameko who got off the mark on debut at Sandown in a Class 4 and then finished a superb second over the same course and distance in the Group Three Solario Stakes.
Last time out he was very unlucky when just being touched off by O'Brien's Royal Dornoch in the Royal Lodge but owners racing manager David Redvers now believes the all weather surface will help him out even more when going up against the Irish raiders.
He said: “The horse did a sensational piece of work last week and Andrew was busting to run him, understandably, because he hasn’t had a horse like this for a while.
“We’ve got to go (to Newcastle) and now I hope conditions might suit us a little bit better.
“At the end of the day, if Newcastle is seen to be that fair and sound a surface that John Gosden is going to start off fillies like Enable there, then why shouldn’t we have a Group One run on that surface?
“Either you just consign all-weather racing to being the cheap winter fodder that we’re not interested in, or you actually accept there are times when it’s the perfect place to run this sort of race.”
Another interesting runner that could enter the frame having been entered to race on Saturday at Newbury but never getting the chance to is Ralph Beckett's unbeaten Kinross.
The two year old has only raced once during his career but got off the mark at Newmarket in taking style beating 15 runners which included some already proven winners.
That form has since been franked and he looks to be a very interesting runner from a thriving yard.
Other British runners that could make up the final field are John Gosden’s pair of Cherokee Trail and Verboten, Brian Meehan’s Cepheus, the Emmet Mullins-trained King Of The Throne and Geometrical for Jim Bolger.