The leading Irish trainer also revealed plans for Breeders' Cup winner Balantina, 2,000 Guineas contender A Boy Named Susie and moreThe temperatures are rising and so too are Donnacha O'Brien's hopes of bagging yet another top-flight success this season, with the gifted young handler revealing that A Boy Named Susie (Starspangledbanner) is on course to run in the 2,000 Guineas – however, Breeders' Cup heroine Balantina (Ten Sovereigns) will not be seen until Royal Ascot at the earliest. But first, O'Brien is plotting an audacious tilt at the lucrative Chairman's Sprint Prize at Sha Tin on April 26 with his globetrotter Comanche Brave (Wootton Bassett), who will have the unenviable task of bringing superstar sprinter Ka Ying Rising's winning sequence to an end. Comanche Brave has been racking up the air miles over the winter. He hit the frame in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Gold Cup before running a fine third in the 1351 Turf Sprint at the Saudi Cup meeting. O'Brien has elected to bypass the Dubai World Cup fixture in favour of Hong Kong, and is optimistic of cashing another valuable cheque with the four-year-old colt.“Comanche Brave will probably take on Ka Ying Rising in Hong Kong later next month but I would be hoping that it won't be a big field and we can pick up some good prize-money,” O'Brien said. “He will like the track and the trip so, all being well, it will be something to look forward to.”O'Brien's Classic hopes appear to be pinned on A Boy Named Susie, who can be backed at odds of 33-1 for Guineas glory. Balantina, who lit up the Breeders' Cup when slaloming her way through the field to produce an emphatic victory under Oisin Murphy in the Grade I Juvenile Fillies' Turf, will sidestep Newmarket. Instead, connections have opted to get her season underway in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, before potentially building towards a return to the States later in the season.O'Brien said, “Balantina is in good form. We gave her a good break after the Breeders' Cup so she has probably taken a little longer to come to hand as a result. We are aiming at the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. That will be her first big target of the season. She won't run in the Guineas. She may or may not have a prep run before Royal Ascot but we feel that good ground is very important to her. I wouldn't like to get her geared up for a Guineas and it to end up being run on slow ground. So that's why we are focussing on getting her started in the middle of the summer and she may even travel to the US later in the year as well. She likes turning tracks and fast ground is very important for her.”Balantina: the Ten Sovereigns filly is being geared towards Royal Ascot | Eclipse SportswireHe added, “I have always thought that A Boy Named Susie is a very good horse and the plan could be for him to run in the 2,000 Guineas. He was very impressive first time out but then he threw in a couple of bad runs and maybe we got one or two things wrong with him. But he was very good at Leopardstown [when beaten just a short head in the Eyrefield Stakes] and then he ran a big race in France [when second to the current Derby favourite Pierre Bonnard in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud]. I'm not one hundred per cent sure what his trip is but I feel that he could have more pace than a lot of people think. He's going to have an away day at the Curragh next week and, if that goes well, he could start off in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. The thinking behind running him a Guineas is that we will learn pretty quickly whether he is up to that standard over that trip. We can adjust accordingly after the Guineas. Whether that means we will be aiming towards a French Derby or the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, that's what we will be hoping to find out by running at Newmarket.”O'Brien's team of three-year-olds is bolstered by the Listed-winning and Group 1-placed speedster Havana Anna (Havana Grey), who is another smart prospect that has Royal Ascot targets. He said, “She's also in very good form. She actually did a lovely piece of work at home here yesterday [Thursday] so she could start off in the Polonia Stakes at Cork before aiming towards the Commonwealth Cup. She's a hardy filly and she did everything right last year. She probably had a bad draw [7] when things didn't go right at the Breeders' Cup but I am very happy with how she is and I'd be very hopeful that she can train on.”O'Brien boasts the outstanding achievement of managing the careers of five individual Group 1 winners in his short time holding a trainer's licence. Porta Fortuna, who won for races at the highest level before lighting up the Tattersalls December Mares Sale last year when selling to MV Magnier for 4.5million gns, is a fine example of what the 27-year-old is capable of. The stable has been operating at 14 and 15 per cent strike-rates for the past three seasons and a career-best tally of 28 winners were recorded domestically in 2025. The aim heading into this new season remains the same; unearth another high-class performer. O'Brien concluded, “We have a good bunch of horses and there are some nice two-year-olds on the team as well but, listen, our main objective every year is to try and find a Group 1 winner. We don't worry too much about winning handicaps. We want to train Group 1 horses and we were very lucky to find a few over the past number of years. Hopefully there is one in there this year.” The post O’Brien Sets Sights On Superstar Sprinter Ka Ying Rising With Globetrotter Comanche Brave appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.