Aidan O'Brien is relieved that he did not send more horses to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe meeting last weekend as Imperial Monarch gears up for a run in Canada overnight.
Imperial Monarch was taken out of last Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, won by Solemia, in the lead-up to the race and has been redirected to the lucrative Pattison Canadian International at Woodbine racecourse.
O'Brien won the 12-furlong Grade 1 turf contest in 2010 with Joshua Tree, who could only finish second one year ago for Marco Botti and lines up once again under Frankie Dettori.
O'Brien ran six horses at the Paris track last week with Camelot faring the best by finishing seventh of 18 runners in the Arc itself.
Camelot lost several shoes and suffered a cut during the hurly burly of the Group 1 contest and was saved by vets in Ireland this week after suffering a bout of colic.
"The ground got very bad there and we were lucky we didn't go there with more horses," O'Brien said.
"When the ground gets that soft you don't really know what will happen.
"We have watched this race for a while."
Joining Imperial Monarch and Joshua Tree in the 11-runner race is Wigmore Hall, the Dubai World Cup Carnival regular.
Michael Bell's charge is undefeated in Canada having won back-to-back Northern Dancer Turf Stakes and the trainer underlined that it is the availability of medication in Toronto that is a leading factor in the five-year-old's success there.
"He just enjoys travelling," Bell said.
"He performs very well on an aeroplane and obviously they can be medicated with Lasix and Bute, which improves most horses."
Follow us
[ @SprtNationalUAE ]
