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  • St Marks Basilica Future Uncertain

    Friday, 17th September 2021

    Trainer Aiden O'Brien told racingpost.com that a decision on the future of St Mark's Basilica (Siyouni-Cabaret, by Galileo) will wait till next week with most anticipating that the Bob Scarborough-bred multiple Group 1 winner will be retired to stud. "St Mark's Basilica came out of his race well," said O'Brien about his win in last Saturday's Gr1 Irish Champion Stakes. "But a decision on what we do next won't be made for another week or ten days. We'll get him back up to full work first and then we'll have a chat with the lads to see what they want to do." The most interesting news out of the Ballydoyle stable is that Mother Earth (Zoffany-Many Colours, by Green Desert) will head to Australia. "Mother Earth is going to Australia now. She will go for the Golden Eagle on October 30 and there's also a fillies' race worth $2m [The Invitation] that she could go for too." Mother Earth ran third in the Gr1 Matron Stakes over 1600m on 11 Sept and has won three of her 14 starts including the Gr1 English One Thousand Guineas and Gr1 Prix Rothschild. Meanwhile both Snowfall (Deep Impact-Best in the World, by Galileo) and Love (Galileo-Pikaboo, by Pivotal) remain on target for the Gr1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. "Before the Prix Vermeille the plan was to go to the Arc next with Snowfall," said O'Brien. "Obviously we'll see how she is in the next week to ten days. If everything is well with her in a week or ten days, she will remain on course for the Arc. Love ran in the Blandford with a view to running in the Arc as well. We thought she ran a very good race. She gave nine pounds to a filly rated 110 so it was a very good run. Ground-dependent, she'll run in the Arc."