Henry Will Navigate Way to BC Classic

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Following Henrythenavigator’s fourth consecutive group I victory in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood July 30, trainer Aidan O’Brien, who was saddling his 16^th Group I win of the year, said the colt’s ultimate goal is the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) on the synthetic surface at Santa Anita.

Coolmore’s John Magnier said that Henrythenavigator has established himself as the best miler in Europe and now it’s time to start looking to expand his horizons.

“He’s done the miling thing and the ultimate aim is to step him up in distance,” Magnier told Racing Post. “The ambition is to go to Santa Anita and the plan is the Classic, but we don’t have to decide now. I think he will go on any surface, but we have to go and prove it. It may not work but we’ve got to try it.

“We did it with success with Giant’s Causeway, who enhanced his reputation in the race, but we came unstuck with Galileo and Hawk Wing. I’m not saying we won’t run him in anymore mile races, but we think he’ll stay and he would have run in the Derby had the ground been right.”

Henrythenavigator, a son of Kingmambo, out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Sequoyah, has won six of his eight career starts, with one second and a third. His other Group I scores came in the English and Irish Two Thousand Guineas and the St. James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

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