Our Ben Linfoot with five key takeaways from his morning at Ballydoyle and Coolmore as Aidan O’Brien discussed all things Epsom and more.<\/p>\n
1. Dante key to Derby team<\/p>\n
\u201cAaron, Freya, Liam, Kerry, Ronan, Dean, Derek, Tara.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aidan O\u2019Brien is greeting his assembled work riders for first lot, clad in Ballydoyle blue. The cap advertises Henri Matisse, the coat \u2013 and you need a coat on a slightly chilly Tipperary morning \u2013 is emblazoned with Delacroix.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re here to chat Betfred Derby, in the main, and there\u2019s plenty to talk about.<\/p>\n
Having blitzed through trials season so far O\u2019Brien has five of the top seven in the Derby betting, but his Epsom team is not as straightforward as looking at those at the top of the market.<\/p>\n
Benvenuto Cellini, or \u2018The Vase Winner\u2019, looks assured of his place in the Derby, as does Pierre Bonnard with Aidan very much keeping the faith with him \u2013 \u201cthe pace was probably too slow for him, but he still ran very well. I would think and we think that he would step up big time next time going a mile and a half.”<\/p>\n
But after those two things get a bit hazy. Especially after O’Brien suggested on Monday that Constitution River, the Betfred Derby second favourite, could miss the race<\/a> in favour of the French equivalent the weekend before.<\/p>\n Expect everything to clear up once the final trial is run \u2013 Thursday\u2019s Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes at York. If Christmas Day wins that and wins it well, his place at Epsom will likely be cemented. <\/p>\n With commercial considerations at the forefront of everything you see at Ballydoyle and Coolmore, the prospect of Constitution River shunning 1m4f around Epsom in favour of the speedier test in the Prix du Jockey Club begins to look more and more obvious.<\/p>\n 2. Kinky Amelia looks a beast<\/p>\n \u201cAmelia Earhart has a kink in her,\u201d says O\u2019Brien with a smile. His Betfred Oaks favourite has her quirks, but that\u2019s part of what makes her the talent she is. There\u2019s a bit of fire in her and you can see it even as she trots around before second lot.<\/p>\n This explains the hood and blinkers combination that she sported during her Chesire Oaks win last week. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a headgear mix that O\u2019Brien has hardly ever used before and he admits himself that it should be a contradiction.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn’t make any sense, because one is to slow her down (hood) and the other is to drive her forward (blinkers),\u201d he said. \u201cBut sometimes things don’t make sense.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they work, you just do them. So whatever way she thinks, that calms her down the best. And that’s when she gets into the right place.”<\/p>\n On Monday she\u2019s sporting the hood and blinkers in her work under Champion Hurdle-winning jockey Dean Gallagher, who confirms her well-being with a grin and a wink. O\u2019Brien dare not take them off now, not after she looked so good at Chester.<\/p>\n \u201cShe did behave very well in Chester. And Chester is probably as close to Epsom that you will get. And it’s on a lesser scale, less pressure. But all the things are there. You know what I mean? The people, the track, the crowd. They have to deal with a lot of stuff.”<\/p>\n That suggests Oaks day will be just fine for the daughter of Camelot. And if her rivals can\u2019t expose the kink, she could prove very tough to beat.<\/p>\n 3. Coronation Cup plan of action<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve given you the plan, it\u2019s very straightforward!\u201d<\/p>\n You can take from that it will be Lambourn who will make the running in the \u00a31million Group 1 Coolmore Coronation Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell you,\u201d O\u2019Brien goes on, \u201che’d be a fair horse to go off in front there now. He’d be a brave man to let him go, wouldn’t he? I wouldn’t like to be giving him too much rope around Epsom. So, it will be an interesting race.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all set to be just that and Lambourn, thriving since his hard-ridden Huxley Stakes success, isn\u2019t even the stable number one.<\/p>\n That would be last year\u2019s Coronation Cup winner, Jan Brueghel, and O\u2019Brien hopes the rematch with Calandagan is on.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Calandagan comes over, that will make it a proper race. And it’ll be exciting then for everyone to see what’s going to happen, won’t it? We want all the big horses to turn up on all those big days and then everyone can have an opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Ryan would ride Jan Brueghel. The horse got sick after he won last year\u2019s race. He started choking on a piece of hay one day, nearly died, and he got pneumonia. So that’s why you didn’t see him. He has done very well to get back to where he is.”<\/p>\n \u201cChester was perfect for both Lambourn and Jan Brueghel. We were very happy with Jan Brueghel (in the Ormonde), I thought it was a lovely run.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought Ryan did well on Lambourn (in the Huxley Stakes) because he never got to sit for one stride. When you see it, it’s unusual that a horse could do that and still win. Like, he rooted him out, and he was going all the way and kept digging.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what Lambourn does. And after doing it over 10 furlongs last time, he\u2019s not a bad front-running second string to have on your side in a race that is back where it belongs on Derby day.<\/p>\n 4. O\u2019Brien ready to flick the switch with Albert<\/p>\n \u201cAlbert. He\u2019s coming.\u201d <\/p>\n I bet you could\u2019ve guessed it, but O\u2019Brien retains all of his faith in Albert Einstein. <\/p>\n Proclaimed as the next big thing in the spring, he\u2019s been beaten twice over seven furlongs this season, including in the Greenham last time, but he\u2019s on the sprinting trial now and is all set to take in the Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock on May 23 before having a crack at the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.<\/p>\n He looks an absolute picture this morning.<\/p>\n \u201cI know everyone is disappointed, but we had to go all the little steps with him as he\u2019s very highly strung,\u201d said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to go back to Haydock for the Sandy Lane, with Brussels. We are nearly there with him. If we are not there for this one we\u2019ll be there for the next one.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going back to six and he did (run well in the Greenham). He doesn\u2019t really know what to do yet because we had the brakes on him the whole time.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Ryan dropped him in in the Greenham in the hood he said he didn\u2019t know what to do. <\/p>\n \u201cOur gut was that he was a sprinter. But we still had to go through the motions with him and mentally it was good for him to do what we did, because it was slowing him down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe minute we flick the switch with him, there\u2019ll be no turning back.<\/p>\n \u201cWe might leave it off (the hood). That\u2019s something to think about. I\u2019d like to (let him loose on the lead) but Brussels might go for him, so he might not have to.”<\/p>\n Do you retain the faith? Maybe I\u2019m blinded by Aidan\u2019s belief, but I\u2019ve a feeling Albert Einstein will be box office viewing over six furlongs at some point. He just needs to be unleashed.<\/p>\n 5. Commercial break<\/p>\n It was a rare treat to spend a morning with Aidan on the Ballydoyle gallops before being guided around beautiful, sprawling Coolmore.<\/p>\n City Of Troy, Delacroix, St Mark\u2019s Basilica, Camille Pissarro, No Nay Never and Auguste Rodin looked magnificent with only fleeting sympathy given to teaser pony, Winston. On reflection, he doesn\u2019t have a bad life.<\/p>\n Auguste Rodin has settled into life as a Coolmore stallion particularly well. He covered 210 mares last year, a big number for a freshman sire, and he shuttles to New Zealand while being nominated at \u20ac27,500 a pop.<\/p>\n He\u2019s not the only active Derby winner on the premises with Camelot, Australia and City Of Troy also on site and they do so under the gaze of the statues of their forefathers, including Galileo, who Aidan still considers his greatest of them all.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was the best Derby winner we ever had? I would say it was Galileo. And he proved to be probably one of the greatest stallions ever. That’s what Epsom does. It’s very tough, but you will get the blood that you really want going forward.”<\/p>\n And there it is, a magnetic pull to Epsom pulsing through the heart of the whole Ballydoyle and Coolmore operation. Perhaps it won\u2019t be enough for O’Brien to send Constitution River to the Derby, but, if that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s only because he doesn\u2019t need him.<\/p>\n More from Sporting LifeSafer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our Ben Linfoot with five key takeaways from his morning at Ballydoyle and Coolmore as Aidan O’Brien discussed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-444334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}