Pine Dance will bypass the $2 million Japan Dirt Cup in favour of a Grade Two race at Churchill Downs, Kentucky, where he is currently based.
Dermot Weld confirmed yesterday that the $400,000 Clark Handicap in 14 days time will be Pine Dance`s last start of a busy season which has seen the colt win twice already in the US.
'I fear the mile and two and a half furlongs of the Japanese race may be a little too far for him and it`s nice that he`s already run at Churchill Downs,' Weld said.
Pine Dance`s last start was a 10th position in last weekend`s Breeders` Cup Classic, where he was ridden by Pat Smullen. The newly crowned Irish champion jockey returns tonight from riding in Dubai and will be able to tell Weld if he can travel to ride Pine Dance in a fortnight.
'If he can`t, we would hope to get someone like Pat Day for the horse,' added Weld, who will be three-handed in Sunday`s Knockaire Stakes at Leopardstown, which winds up the 2000 flat season.
Major Force, Tiger Royal and Free To Speak are his intended runners, while the two-year-old, Vinnie Roe, owned by film director Jim Sheridan, will be the Weld representative in the
Eyrefield Stakes.
This weekend will see the return of racing action in Ireland after the the severe disruption caused by the bad weather. No problems are expected at either Leopardstown on Sunday or Naas tomorrow, where last season`s top bumper horse, Ned Kelly, could make his hurdling debut.
The meeting originally scheduled for Cork on Sunday, which was called off earlier this week, will now be run off on November 19th.
Richard Johnson clocked up his fastest century when steering Sleeting to a hard-fought success over Catullus in the selling handicap hurdle at Taunton yesterday. But the seven-year-old needed all of Johnson`s strength in the saddle to seal the ton by a short head as a loose horse running the opposite way up the straight appeared to distract his mount on the run to the winning post.
Johnson, 23, wasdelighted at reaching this landmark in his career and smiled: 'That`s fantastic. I`m delighted to get my 100 as it`s obviously the fastest ton I`ve ever ridden.
'I really hope I can ride another before the end of the season and beat that man Tony McCoy.
'My target at the beginning of the season was to get 150 winners on the board which I have never done before but now, hopefully, I can beat that but, as always, the main thing about this game is staying in one piece,' he added.
