COUNTY MEATH, Ireland--Racing at Navan was canceled on Saturday, Jan. 23 due to frozen ground, thus cancelling Winston C's first race in Ireland.
Winston C, owned by Ed Swyer's Hudson River Farms, was scheduled to run in a $45,000 Handicap Hurdle,and he would have been making his first start since finishing fourth in the G1 Lonesome Glory Stakes after winning both the G1 A.P. Smithwick and G1 Turf Writers at Saratoga in 2019, had the race gone.
"Navan is being rescheduled, but we've had a change of plans," said trainer Keri Brion. "Asking him to go straight into a Grade B after such a long lay-off was a big ask. So we're going to enter him in a G3 at Naif on Jan. 31. The there's another G3 at Goren Park on Feb. 20. We'll run him in those two and then decide whether to go to Cheltenham."
"I was talking to Mr. Swyer, and we decided that going this route was going to let him be competitive," said Brion. "Navan is quite far north of us. It's north of Dublin. The ground was frozen this morning, but it would have been very deep if it hadn't frozen."
Baltimore Bucko runs Tuesday,, Jan. 26 at Down Royal in a rated novice hurdle, after finishing a game third in his first race in Ireland, and French Light is aimed for a race at Leopardstown on Feb. 7 after finishing second at Clonmel in a rated Novice Hurdle race on Jan. 20.
While Brion's string is the only group a horses usually trained and raced in the states racing in Ireland, Bruton Street's owners Charlie Fenwick, Mike Hankin and Charlie Noell have European horses based in and training in Ireland.
Bruton Street V's Franco De Port, who is trained in Ireland by Willie Mullins, is scheduled to run again on Feb. 6 after winning a G1 Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Dec, 26.