AIDAN O’Brien opened the doors to Ballydoyle Stables last Monday for a media visit, organised by Jockey Club Racecourses in association with Betfred, who now sponsor all five British classics.
O’Brien has saddled a record 10 winners of the 2000 Guineas, seven 1000 Guineas heroines, a record 10 Derby winners, 10 Oaks scorers and eight victors of the St Leger.
Betfred is offering a £1 million bonus to any horse which can win the Triple Crown (2000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger), a feat not achieved since Nijinsky in 1970.
“We would still very much like to win the Triple Crown although it is a very difficult thing to do,” said O’Brien. “To have the right horse and for everything to fall in place.
“Every year the lads (owners John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derek Smith) say they wouldn’t go to the St Leger with this horse but if we did have a horse that won the Guineas and the Derby, I know which race they would like to go for.”
O’Brien is approaching 30 years training out of Ballydoyle Stables, where he saddled his first Group 1 winner Desert King in the 1996 National Stakes.
The trainer continued: “I love coming out in the morning and working with the people and the horses we have here. I feel lucky. We live here in Ballydoyle and are lucky that our work is also our hobby. It’s not getting any easier though – if anything it is getting more competitive!”
Betfred 2000 Guineas
“The two horses we are thinking of for the 2000 Guineas at the moment are Twain and Expanded and both horses are being trained for it. Twain is obviously already a Group 1 winner and if the two are both going well heading into Newmarket, then Expanded could go for the Irish 2000 Guineas Trial at the Curragh the following Monday and just Twain would go straight to Newmarket. If we are not sure about either of them, then the two of them could both run in the Guineas.”
Betfred 1000 Guineas
“The plan is to run Exactly,who has already had a run, and possibly Lake Victoria, who is on the way back. We stepped Lake Victoria up a couple of weeks ago and she is really coming to herself now. She could be there in time for Newmarket but if she wasn’t she could also go to the Curragh instead. It is very possible she could make it to Newmarket and if she did, Exactly could go for the French Guineas instead.”
Betfred Derby
“The Lion In Winter will not go for the Guineas and will instead start off it the Dante at York, where he should be around 80-90%. He is a medium-sized horse and has done well over the winter. He is straightforward, not slow, and being by Sea The Stars, he should stay very well. We are very happy with him and if York goes well we will see what the lads want to do but if everything goes well, the Derby would probably be the plan.
“Delacroix who won the Ballysax Stakes could now go for the Derrinstown and could also be a Derby horse. If Twain won the Guineas, there is a good chance the lads will want to go for the Derby with him as well for obvious reasons.
“It was probably impossible what we asked Twain to do last season. He won his maiden and then just over a week later won a Group 1 in France. He never saw another horse in his maiden when the plan had been to drop him in and educate him, but he jumped out and won by six lengths.
“He went to France after what was only really a racecourse gallop and was still very green but won very nicely. With his pedigree, there is every chance he should stay the Derby trip if all goes well in the Guineas.”
Betfred Oaks
“Dreamy is a big price but could be an Oaks filly. She is a beautiful mile-and-a-half filly, who could go for a trial at Chester or York.
“There is also Whirl who ran at the Curragh and who will be better going up in trip and Ballet Slippers, who is the first foal out of Magical and should also be suited by a step up in trip.”
AIDAN O’Brien is also giving serious consideration to running his superstar stayer Kyprios in this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“We’re over the moon with Kyprios, we think he’s forward and he’s going to go to Navan (Vintage Crop Stakes), to Leopardstown (Saval Beg) and to Ascot (Gold Cup),” said the trainer.
“If we got into the year as far as we got last year, we might look at the Arc this year instead of going to the Cadran. That is what we’re thinking, if we get that far.
“The Gold Cup is the main target for the first half of the season, then there’s Goodwood and the Irish Leger could be the prep for Arc time. Whether he goes to the Cadran or the Arc we’ll see, but although he’s seven now, his whole attitude hasn’t changed at all since he was a two-year-old, which is very unusual.”
Top-level targets
Another O’Brien star who could be Arc-bound in the autumn is Los Angeles. The Irish Derby hero was third behind Bluestocking in last year’s renewal and has several top-level targets.
“The plan is he might go to France for the Prix Ganay and come back to the Tattersalls Gold Cup – and if that went well, he could go for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot,” said O’Brien.
“We’ll try and keep him at a mile and a quarter for as long as we can. Whether he’ll go to the King George I’m not sure, but we think in the autumn the Arc might suit him, so we just have to be conscious of that early in the year. We think he’s improved a lot physically and his work is very good.”
Australian sprinter Storm Boy is an exciting addition to O’Brien’s older horse team with the Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh next month pencilled in for his European debut.
O’Brien added: “The plan is to go to the Curragh on (Irish) Guineas weekend and if that went well, he’ll go to Ascot for the six-furlong race (Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes). We think he’s fast. Before he came, I wasn’t sure whether he was a six or seven-furlong horse or a miler, but he’s fast and we think he’s a sprinter.”