QIPCO British Champions Day hero Cracksman has the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June as his main aim for the first half of 2018.
The Frankel colt ended his 2017 season with three devastating victories, including the seven length demolition of a high class field in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.
France looks to be the front runner of a return this Spring for Cracksman, who has been linked with a run in Dubai, but it seems the Prix Ganay at Longchamp is the first prep run ahead of Royal Ascot in June.
"Royal Ascot is obviously what we are thinking about in the first half of the season, but if it was firm we wouldn't run. On good ground or soft, it wouldn't worry him," owner Anthony Oppenheimer told Racing UK.
"I don't think the Coronation Cup is the race for him. Maybe if it came up really soft we might consider it, but I don't think Epsom suits him.
"We've seen him twice coming down the hill at Epsom and it is a bit like when a human runs downhill, you keep getting faster and it is quite worrying.
"He finds doing that, with his action, quite a problem, like he did in the Derby and the race before, so he'll probably have an entry for the Coronation Cup, but I think it would be unlikely if he ran.
"I would think after the Ganay that the Tattersalls Gold Cup would then be a reasonable possibility, before we starting thinking of the Prince of Wales's at Royal Ascot."
