Arc tilt could be on the agenda for Kyprios this term

Aidan O’Brien is giving serious consideration to running his superstar stayer Kyprios in this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The seven-year-old re-established himself as the king of the staying division last season, regaining the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, the Goodwood Cup, the Irish St Leger and the Prix du Cadran before rounding off an unbeaten seven-race campaign with victory on British Champions Day.

Following his second Irish Leger success, O’Brien raised the possibility of dropping Kyprios back in trip for Europe’s premier middle-distance contest at ParisLongchamp in early October, but ultimately decided to stick to the two-and-a-half-mile trip of the Cadran.

However, things could be different this time around, with O’Brien saying: “We’re over the moon with Kyprios, we think he’s forward and he’s going to go to Navan (Vintage Crop Stakes), to Leopardstown (Saval Beg) and to Ascot (Gold Cup).

“If we got into the year as far as we got last year, we might look at the Arc this year instead of going to the Cadran. That is what we’re thinking, if we get that far.

“The Gold Cup is the main target for the first half of the season, then there’s Goodwood and the Irish Leger could be the prep for Arc time. Whether he goes to the Cadran or the Arc we’ll see, but although he’s seven now, his whole attitude hasn’t changed at all since he was a two-year-old, which is very unusual.”

Another O’Brien inmate who could be Arc-bound in the autumn is Los Angeles. The Irish Derby hero was third behind Bluestocking in last year’s renewal and has several top-level targets this term.

“The plan is he might go to France for the Prix Ganay and come back to the Tattersalls Gold Cup – and if that went well, he could go for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot,” said O’Brien.

“We’ll try and keep him at a mile and a quarter for as long as we can. Whether he’ll go to the King George I’m not sure, but we think in the autumn the Arc might suit him, so we just have to be conscious of that early in the year.

“We think he’s improved a lot physically and his work is very good.”

Australian sprinter Storm Boy is an exciting addition to O’Brien’s older horse team this year, with the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh next month pencilled in for his European debut.

O’Brien added: “The plan is to go to the Curragh on (Irish) Guineas weekend for the six-furlong race and if that went well, he’ll go to Ascot for the six-furlong race (Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes).

“We think he’s fast. Before he came, I wasn’t sure whether he was a six or seven-furlong horse or a miler, but he’s fast and we think he’s a sprinter.”