Sun Goddess could take in the Curragh before Newmarket

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Sioux Nation filly is already a Group One winner, having beaten the boys in the Phoenix Stakes on her penultimate start, after which she blitzed her rivals in the Goffs-sponsored Harry’s Half Million at York.

The Tattersalls Sceptre Sessions Cheveley Park Stakes over six furlongs at Newmarket on September 26 was identified as a major objective afterwards, but O’Brien says there is “every chance” she could first line up alongside Alpha on day two of the Irish Champions Festival.

“Sun Goddess seems to have come out of York very well. We probably learnt plenty about her – we learnt that she handles an ease in the ground and we learnt that there’s every chance that she could get seven furlongs as well, so she could go to the Moyglare on the way to the Cheveley Park,” he said.

“We’ll get a little bit closer to it before we decide, but she did her first bit of work back at the weekend and we were very happy with her, so there’s every chance she could go without it being written in stone.”

Alpha suffered a short-priced defeat when third in the Debutante Stakes last time, but O’Brien feels she should not be underestimated.

He added: “Alpha has been trained for the Moyglare all the time, she’s a massive, powerful filly and we were happy with her the last day. She ran a lovely race and because it was only a Group race on the way we didn’t want to go all out with her.

“She gets the trip very well and the faster they go the better it will suit her.”

When asked which filly Ryan Moore would ride, O’Brien said: “Alpha will go hard and drag the living daylights out of everything, and with Sun Goddess you’d be wanting to see if she’ll get the trip, so it’s going to be a hard one. I suppose it will come down to whether the lads decide to let Sun Goddess run or not.

“It will be a hard call I think, but looking at Sun Goddess the last day it’s going to be very hard to get off her.”

O’Brien is also planning to fire a twin assault on the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes on the same afternoon, with Giant Sequoia and Haffner both pencilled in for the Group One contest.

“Everything has gone really well for Giant Sequoia all the way along really. He wasn’t as impressive as we thought he could be the last day, but with the benefit of hindsight it could be good for him because he probably learnt plenty,” said O’Brien.

“We were very happy with Haffner the last day and he seems to have come out of it well, so he could go there with Giant Sequoia.

“Ryan is going to find it very hard to get off Giant Sequoia, but I’d say Haffner is going to be a big danger and I know he loves him, so that isn’t going to be an easy decision.”

Mission Central, Charles Darwin and Brussels are all possible contenders for the team in the BAR 1 Betting Flying Five Stakes, while star stayer Scandinavia is the undoubted star attraction in the Comer Group International Irish St. Leger and is set to be joined by Jan Brueghel and Queenstown.

O’Brien will also be well represented in the three Group Ones at Leopardstown 24 hours earlier, with Precise and True Love set to lock horns for the fourth time this season in the Coolmore America “Justify” Matron Stakes.

The score is two-one to Precise in the rivalry between the two Classic heroines. True Love was the victor when they first clashed in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in early May, but Precise turned the tables in the Irish Guineas and confirmed her superiority in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Neither have won since the Royal meeting, with Precise twice second to top-class older filly Blue Bolt in the Falmouth Stakes and Prix Rothschild before finishing third against the colts in the Prix Jacques le Marois, while True Love was last seen finishing a close-up fifth in the Prix Maurice de Gheest.

“That’s the plan, we’re thinking of running both in the Matron,” said O’Brien.

“Obviously we’ve tried to split them up and go different places with them. True Love ran well the last day over six and a half, but she’s going to go back up to a mile again.

“Precise went a few different places and ran against the older horses and had a few tough assignments, but for the last two months we were trying not to be too hard on the horses so when the autumn came we could lean a little bit harder on them.

“Precise looks like she gets the mile stronger than True Love, but True Love has a lot of class, so it will be interesting and it will probably come down to where they’re drawn and who gets the run of the race.”

The other top-level prizes on day one of the Irish Champions Festival are the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, in which Constitution River will be Ballydoyle’s big gun, and the newly-upgraded Golden Fleece Stakes over nine furlongs.

O’Brien plans to run “two, three or four” in the latter contest, with Aix La Chapelle, Sergei Diaghilev, Shakespeare and last Saturday’s impressive maiden winner Darkness Falls among those in the mix.