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O'Brien confident January will get her day

O'Brien confident January will get her day

Irish Examiner11-07-2025
Aidan O'Brien could look to France for a Group 1-winning opportunity for January after the filly narrowly missed out in the Tattersalls Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket.
In receipt of 9lb from the winner Cinderella's Dream, the three-year-old January was beaten just half a length, adding another top-level placing to her record after taking third in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Despite seeing his 6-4 favourite eclipsed, O'Brien is confident the Kingman filly is on the right track, with the Prix Rothschild at Deauville on August 3 pencilled in as a possible target.
O'Brien said: "She ran a lovely race, she is improving and we think there's more improvement to come from her.
"She's a lot of ability this filly and it's coming. She's definitely a miler — she's quick. We're getting there — she's slowly getting closer.
"She ran a great race and we think we're on the right road.
"There's the fillies' race in Deauville in a few weeks' time, so we might look at that for her."
For his part, Charlie Appleby was full of praise for Cinderella's Dream in the aftermath of her tenacious win.
"I did think when she hit the rising ground it would take a tough one to get past her," said Appleby, who was winning the Falmouth for the first time.
"I'll be honest, I don't know if she was firing on all cylinders at Ascot. We always look for excuses when we're beaten so we used the bend and the 3lb penalty, but she's been round Del Mar and you ain't going to get many tighter turns than that, so I don't think we can say going round Ascot was going to be too much of a challenge for her.
"She's knee high to a grasshopper but she's as tough as teak and I'm delighted for her as she's been so consistent and for her to win a Group 1 here in Europe is richly deserved.
"We're very much going to work back from the Breeders' Cup Filly And Mare Turf. It annoyed me when that got away for us last year, so we'll go back for a crack at that, how we get there we'll work that out."
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