Supertar three year old of the season Roaring Lion looks set to finish off his campaign in search of his fifth Group 1 of the season when going in the Breeders Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in America next weekend.
The John Gosden trained colt has been pre-entered into two races at the Breeders Cup weekend with the first choice being in the $6 million Classic race and the fall back race being the $4 million Breeders Cup Turf.
Roaring Lion picked up his fourth Group 1 victory of the season on Saturday at Ascot in what was a really special British Champions Day.
He won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a distance of a mile that he had not been favourable with and on Soft ground that was a negative, but he showed everyone the class above he really is to get up on the line and land the Group 1.
The owner of Qatar Racing Ltd, Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, who owns Roaring Lion is very much up for his grey three year old to have one more outing this year before he is retired to become a stud, on the dirt a surface he is very unfamiliar to.
(Credit At The Races) Qatar Racing Manager David Redvers Said: “Roaring Lion has been entered in both the Classic and the Turf, but the plan is to run in the Classic.
“He’s never run on the surface, but Sheikh Fahad is very keen. The colt appears to have come out of Saturday in tremendous shape. It’s bizarre how well he seems to take his races. He was so fresh that John Gosden had to give him a canter this morning.
“We will keep an eye on him and make a final decision as close as we can to when he has to fly, but John has said he would not run Roaring Lion if the track came up sloppy.”
The slight problem that Qatar racing face still to make this actually happen is that Roaring Lion has only won two races that are classed as 'Win and You're In' races, these came in the Juddmonte International at York and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.
These races only qualify him to run in the Breeders Cup Turf race and not the Classic meaning he does not have an automatic entry at this moment in time. However this is expected to be over subscribed after his performances this year.