{"id":982672,"date":"2026-08-05T16:34:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982672\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:34:18","slug":"celeron-seeks-breeders-cup-bid-in-phoenix-stakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982672\/","title":{"rendered":"Celeron Seeks Breeders’ Cup Bid in Phoenix Stakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Impressive Railway Stakes (G2) winner Celeron<\/a>\u00a0 is set for three big assignments in the coming months as Michael O’Callaghan gears him up for the Phoenix Stakes (G1) at the Curragh Aug. 9, with further top-level targets potentially on the horizon, including the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n

O’Callaghan has trained some smart 2-year-olds, such as group 2 winners Black Forza<\/a>\u00a0 and Crypto Force<\/a>\u00a0, but Celeron could be the best yet, judging by his 3-length success in last month’s Railway Stakes.<\/p>\n

While his trainer was keen to step him up to 7 furlongs in the immediate aftermath of that win, he has decided to give the son of Mohaather<\/a>\u00a0 another crack at 6 furlongs before he goes up in distance later in the season.<\/p>\n

“The plan with Celeron is to run in the Phoenix,” he said. “I know immediately after the race I was thinking about not running over 6 furlongs again, but I probably had my mind made up before the race.”<\/p>\n

His dominant performance in the Curragh group 2 has encouraged O’Callaghan to give him a shot at a group 1 over the same course and distance on Sunday in a race that could also feature two Royal Ascot winners trained by Aidan O’Brien in Victorious<\/a>\u00a0 and Great Barrier Reef<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Having landed a Curragh maiden in June, Celeron finished down the field in the Windsor Castle, but he bounced back with a classy performance in the Railway under Oisin Murphy. With a tilt at the National Stakes (G1) and Breeders’ Cup on the agenda, O’Callaghan is hoping it will set the talented colt up for a productive end to the season.<\/p>\n

“He’s rated 111 over 6 furlongs so he’s a very high-class colt,” said the trainer. “He can step up to 7 furlongs for the National Stakes and then maybe go to the Breeders’ Cup, which is the big target. I thought it was maybe a bit silly to bypass the Phoenix.<\/p>\n

“The timing is perfect and then it’s a month to the National Stakes and then the bones of six weeks to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. He’s a big horse\u2014he probably wants a mile next year\u2014and he has a lot of talent.”<\/p>\n

It was announced last week that Medallion Racing and Steve Weston’s Parkland Thoroughbreds purchased a 50% interest in the son of Mohaather.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Medallion Racing, Parkland Buy Into Celeron<\/a><\/p>\n

Celeron was offered by Barton Stud at last year’s Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, where he was knocked down for just 20,000 guineas to Antonio Da Silva.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Impressive Railway Stakes (G2) winner Celeron\u00a0 is set for three big assignments in the coming months as Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[394404,5229,5643,1587,171195,394403,394401,1801,394399,394402,1589,394400,112426,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-982672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-2026-breeders-cup-juvenile-turf-g1t","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-breeders-cup","tag-celeron-gb","tag-curragh","tag-international","tag-keeneland","tag-michael-ocallaghan","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-stakes","tag-thoroughbred-racing","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117043872571750902","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}