Al Riffa travels to Longchamp on Sunday for the Ganay Joseph O’Brien will bid for further Group 1 glory with Al Riffa as the five-year-old heads to France on Sunday for the Prix Ganay. The son of Wootton Basset won the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes as a juvenile and after a light campaign in 2023, enjoyed further top-level success last year in the Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten and was also second to City Of Troy in the Coral-Eclipse. He reappeared in the Howden Neom Turf Cup over an extended ten furlongs at Riyadh in February when staying on into third behind Shin Emperor. “He’s fit and well and runs in the Ganay,” said O’Brien. “He’s had a good prep since Saudi. We had planned to go to Meydan, but he had a little setback the week before and we didn’t go there. “This was the next obvious spot for him, and he ran well in it last year. It’s going to be a small field, but it looks a really good race. “He’s quite versatile in terms of ground and trip and hopefully he runs well.” Al Riffa faces five rivals in the Prix Ganay including Map Of Stars who has already won twice this year including the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt in impressive fashion at Longchamp earlier this month. Henry de Bromhead sends over Higher Leaves for the ten-furlong event and she won twice in France last autumn, landing the Group 3 Prix Fille de l’Air at Toulouse on her latest start.
