Aidan O’Brien’s primary job every year is to produce stallions for his Coolmore bosses, a priority that has to be shelved this Group One weekend. His 1000 Guineas-winning filly True Love takes on colts in Sunday’s Prix Jean Prat at Deauville, but should Mission Central cement his status as a top sprinter by landing Saturday’s Al Basti July Cup, it will be bittersweet.The 625,000 guineas purchase (about €760,000) from his breeder, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, was gelded after his very first start, having been difficult to manage. That unkind cut worked by transforming the son of No Nay Never, who graduated to the top level at Royal Ascot last month by beating older horses in the King Charles III Stakes.Now he goes into what is traditionally Europe’s most prestigious sprint prize, a proven stallion-making race, although cutting a rather more aerodynamic shape than is commercially optimal. All five of O’Brien’s previous July Cup winners went on to stallion careers. They include the 2010 winner Starapangledbanner, whose lucrative €60,000 fee is likely to increase on the back of exploits by his progeny Gstaad and Precise this season.Given how O’Brien has explained how much easier it is to train horses that don’t have testosterone on the brain, in years to come, perhaps veterinary experimentation on reverse castration might prove lucrative research!The present reality is that a Mission Central fully focused on the job in hand has a shot at delivering its trainer a record sixth July Cup success.The chances of that could increase just hours before the race, should Venetian Sun’s trainer Karl Burke walk the course and consider the ground conditions too quick for his filly.Circumstances seem to have conspired against the Commonwealth Cup winner, who showed signs of being in season earlier this week. It is also 43 years since Habibti was the last three-year-old filly to win. Heatwave conditions aren’t ideal either for a talent that relishes a little going ease.Even if she doesn’t line up, though, it will be an impressive field for sprinters. Almeraq and the Japanese star Satono Reve fought out a memorable finish to the QEII Jubilee Stakes at Ascot. French man Christophe Lemaire travels from Japan to ride Satono.Venetian Sun's trainer, Karl Burke, will walk the course before deciding if Venetian Sun takes her chance. Photograph: John Walton/PA He had been mixing it in Hong Kong with the world’s top-rated sprinter Ka Ying Rising. Coolmore have already indicated they fancy a clash with him in Australia’s most valuable race, the Everest in Sydney this October. That’s worth more than €4.3 million to the winner. Donnacha O’Brien is also taking a shot at the July Cup with Comanche Brave. The son of Wootten Bassett is still a colt and if Billy Loughnane gets him home in front, he’s likely to prove an attractive sire option. Any talk of gelding is unlikely in relation to O’Brien snr’s $2.3 million colt Abraham Lincoln. He has a second career start in the Group Two Superlative Stakes, a race the subsequent champion City Of Troy won by more than six lengths in 2023.Abraham Lincoln made a winning debut over six furlongs at the Curragh when beating his stable companion Haffner. The latter could supply a form boost when lining up in Saturday’s Newmarket opener.O’Brien remains on 12 Group One successes this season after Precise had to settle for second to Blue Bolt in Friday’s Falmouth Stakes. The odds-on favourite couldn’t get to grips with the winner, who supplied Colin Keane with another top-flight victory and won by two lengths.Blue Bolt’s trainer, Andrew Balding, nominated the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown over the Irish Champions Festival in September as a target for the winner. The emphasis is on quantity rather than quality for this weekend’s domestic action, although Donnacha O’Brien’s 100-rated South Island looks to have a good opportunity in a conditions event at Navan on Saturday afternoon.Later that evening, Joseph O’Brien’s Nellcote has a second career start in a maiden. Her owner continues his fondness for naming runners with a Rolling Stones theme: Nellcote is where the band recorded the bulk of the classic Exile On Main Street album.