A TRIP to Paris on Sunday week looks increasingly like the next option for Al Kazeem with fast ground set to prevail at Leopardstown this weekend.

Roger Charlton’s five-year-old has enjoyed a fantastic campaign so far, completing a Group One hat-trick in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown.

He suffered his first defeat when third in a fast-ground Juddmonte International at York last month and with similar conditions likely in Ireland on Saturday, the Prix Foy at Longchamp on September 15 will come under consideration.

LETHAL Force will retire to stud at the end of the season after being bought by Cheveley Park.

The four-year-old won the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes last term but has really come of age this season, dropping back to six furlongs to win the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket.

Lethal Force was last seen finishing second to Moonlight Cloud in the six-and-a-half-furlong Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last month and is the ante-post favourite for Saturday’s Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock.

IRISH Oaks winner Chicquita is to form part of a dispersal sale at Goffs in November by Australian owner-breeder Paul Makin.

The Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained filly survived a dramatic drift to her left across the track to take the Curragh Classic by half a length from Venus De Milo in the hands of Johnny Murtagh.

A daughter of Montjeu, Chicquita is one of 25 horses to be offered by the Castlebridge Consignment on behalf of Makin, who operates his bloodstock interests under the Paulyn banner.

MARCO Botti has identified the Champion Stakes at Ascot as a possible alternative to the Breeders’ Cup Classic for star middle-distance runner Planteur.

Third in the last two runnings of the Dubai World Cup on the Tapeta at Meydan, Planteur would appear to have a better chance than most European runners of handling the Santa Anita dirt.