Red Desire (near): Dubai winner is headed for Breeders' Cup

  PICTURE: Dubai Racing Club/Andrew Watkins  

Breeders' Cup plan for Japanese filly Red Desire

Japan: Top filly Red Desire is set to join dirt champion Espoir City in a two-headed Japanese assault on this year's Breeders' Cup.

Red Desire, scratched from last month's Takarazuka Kinen due to nosebleed, is set to run in the $2 million Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Churchill Downs on November 5.

The four-year-old, who won the Shuka Sho (fillies' St Leger) in 2009, also took the final round of the Maktoum Challenge at Meydan in March before flopping in the Dubai World Cup itself.

She will leave Japan on September 15 before running in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park on October 2 before the Breeders' Cup a month later.

Trainer Mikio Matsunaga said: "European horses who have suffered similar experiences with bleeding have run well in America and she likes running anti-clockwise, which should help."

The five-year-old Espoir City, Japan's number one dirt horse, is being aimed for the Breeders' Cup Classic.