Joseph O’Brien: ‘He has shown exceptional potential in training – and he might head straight to Royal Ascot’

The giant son of Wootton Bassett got closer to last year’s unbeaten Arc winner Ace Impact than anything else when going down by three-quarters of a length in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville in August. We didn’t see him afterwards after a late setback ruled him out of the Irish Champion Stakes for which he was a leading fancy. But Al Riffa is back and ready to make up for lost time at four by all accounts. He is VIP material at Owning Hill and will make his eagerly awaited comeback in the Prix Ganay on Sunday.