Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races on Saturday in Ireland produced likely Breeders’ Cup starters – and exciting ones, too. Three-year-old colt Auguste Rodin won the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes after 3-year-old filly Tahiyra sprinted clear of her rivals in the Group 1 Matron Stakes. Both horses are top class, and both their trainers specifically mentioned the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita as a late-season goal.   Aidan O’Brien trains Auguste Rodin, who ran down the O’Brien-trained 4-year-old Luxembourg to win the 1 1/4-mile Irish Champion by a half-length. Ryan Moore rode the winner, who got six pounds from his older rival and bounced back from a flat performance finishing last of 10 in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 29. That was Auguste Rodin’s second flop of the season, but while his subpar performance in the 2000 Guineas more than three months ago came over a sodden, difficult ground, Auguste Rodin had no such specific excuse in the King George.   Hard racing had probably just caught up to the colt, a Group 1-winner at 2 who sandwiched major wins in the Derby at Epsom and in the Irish Derby between his disappointing performances. Auguste Rodin on his day is the best 10-to-12-furlong horse in Ireland and England, at least on decent ground, and Moore said after the Irish Champion that victory never really seemed in doubt.  :: Bet with the Best! Get Free DRF PPs and Cashback when you wager. Join DRF Bets. That was how it looked from the outside, too, as Luxembourg took the lead and a third O’Brien runner, massive longshot Point Lonsdale, tracked the pacesetter on the outside, leaving Auguste Rodin sitting sweetly in third. When Point Lonsdale began fading a quarter mile out, Moore moved Auguste Rodin to challenge, and the favored colt gradually wore down a game Luxembourg, a high-class horse in his own right. The 4-year-old filly Nashwa flashed a brief danger with a furlong to run but could not muster the final needed push, finishing third, but just a nose behind Luxembourg. Fourth-place King of Steel, who was second in the Derby, loomed in upper stretch, then hit a flat spot, but was closing again the last 50 yards. A huge colt, King of Steel needs 1 1/2 miles for his best.  O’Brien wants no part of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on soft going. The Santa Anita course in November almost certainly will be firm and quick, and from O’Brien’s remarks, we it’s there we can expect to see Auguste Rodin, a son of Deep Impact and Rhododendron, by Galileo.  Irish trainer Dermot Weld has been racing horses in America for decades, and the brilliant Tahiyra is a fast ground horse.   “Obviously, the Breeders’ Cup has to be a possibility,” Weld said to overseas media.  The Matron is linked as a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race to the BC Filly and Mare Turf, but that race is contested over 1 1/4 miles this year and Tahiyra is a miler, so the BC Mile seems the more likely target.  Tahiyra, an odds-on favorite Saturday, was second of 20 over that very soft Newmarket course that compromised Auguste Rodin in the English 1000 Guineas, but that is the only race she has lost in six starts. The Matron marked her fourth Group 1 victory, and Tahirya simply is a thrilling filly to watch. Cruising along in the group of horses behind the leader, Tahiyra was on autopilot coming out of the race’s one turn, jockey Chris Hayes sitting chilly as other riders began asking their mounts. Hayes waited and waited, finally giving Tahiyra her cue with only about an eighth of a mile to race, as Tahiyra accelerated instantly, streaking past Just Beautiful and on to victory. Rogue Millennium nabbed second from Just Beautiful while 1 1/4 lengths behind Tahiyra. The winner is an Aga Khan homebred by Siyouni out of Tarana, by Cape Cross.  The Group 2 Champions Juvenile Stakes for 2-year-olds over one mile also is part of the BC Challenge Series, and O’Brien and Moore captured that race, too, with highly regarded second-time starter Diego Velazquez. The odds-on favorite still races greenly but got the better of stablemate Capulet, winning by a half-length. By Frankel out of Sweepstake, by Acclamation, Diego Rivera is a Derby type horse, and he is on the same path that Auguste Rodin took last year, with a season-ending start in the Group 1 Futurity at Doncaster on his agenda rather than a trip to America.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.