SO where is Samcro going next? Hold the big horse, that was last week’s news!
The attention switched swiftly to thoughts of classic horses this week and the Irish flat season kicks off at Naas tomorrow.
The season was officially launched with a media trip to Ballydoyle on Wednesday, where a relaxed Aidan O’Brien, [“ask me anything!”] showed off the majority of his classic hopes for the coming season.
The horses, all very relaxed in front of the media circus, are at the early stage of their preparation and most are on the trial route before the leading lights emerge.
There was as much gleaned about how the master works and the attention to detail and routine that link every horse and human together to make up the record breaking team in Ballydoyle.
The teamwork is apparent from the off. Everyone linked by radio. “I can whisper in anyone’s ear at anytime. Everyone is told everything, we include everyone. A horse could off today and be fine tomorrow.”
Four lots a day ride out. Half an hour walking, a spell trotting in each direction (no rising trots), to the gallops to canter, talk to each of the riders, off to a second canter. Conversation is interrupted by the tractor rolling the gallop after each canter. Work riders are jockeys in their own right. Alan Crowe, Ben Dalton, Dean Gallagher, Donnacha, Emmet McNamara, Mick Hussey, Nina, Seamie, Wayne.
What to most would be monotonous, here it’s just meticulous.
The scene at trainer Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle Stables ahead of the 2018 flat season.
“Everything is recorded, the times, the heart rate, the weights, how much they drink, how much they eat, every single day. It’s a big thing putting all that together to come up on a click on your phone. Patterns develop, what you do or you don’t do. It’s all information. People say can you teach a computer gut feeling? But gut feeling comes from information.”
Part of a successful team is knowing every component. The importance of knowing the pedigrees is also a huge bonus.
“For the last few years it’s been getting stronger, we knew all those fillies, now we’re starting to know the stallions, generations of them. It’s like humans, we all have traits, both mental and physical. If we know them, we can expect things before they happen.
“It’s funny their little traits, with Giant’s Causeway, he never liked the stalls himself and most of his stock don’t like the stalls.”
The older horses are headed by dual classic winner Capri who may start off in the Coronation Cup and Order Of St George who has the Gold Cup as his aim again. Yucatan and Cliffs Of Moher are also fit and ready for a group-race seasonal debut.
Hydrangea was described as a “very rare filly” on what she achieved last year and won’t be too busy in the early part of the season, while Rhododendron is ready for a reappearance but misses Naas due to the ground.
O’Brien also nominated Flag Of Honour, Nelson, Gardens Of Babylon (“might be one for your fiver”), James Cook (a full-brother to Found), Kenya and Rostropovich as colts who could go the Derby trial route. Snowflakes, a sister to Winter, was one of the lesser known fillies to be mentioned.
The next batch of potential stars are also in preparation. A bunch of eight two-year-olds are in line for their debuts. “They are half-speeding and could be our group horses. We haven’t let them go yet.”
The new crop include many progeny of the phenomenally successful Scat Daddy and the speedy No Nay Never. The pedigrees are something to behold with offspring of some phenomenal mares. Galileo-Moonlight Cloud, Galileo-Duntle, Galileo-Fire Lily, Galileo-Remember When, Galileo-Hveger (brother to Highland Reel and Idaho), Galileo-Butterfly Cove (sister to Misty For Me and Ballydoyle), Galileo-Rosdhu Queen, Galileo-Six Perfections, Australia-Peeping Fawn, War Front-Was, Australia-Sitara (half-brother to Rekindling).
Below are the leading classic contenders for this season.
Some of the Ballydoyle string on the gallops.
AMEDEO MODIGLIANI
bc (31-)
Galileo-Gooseberry Fool
He is in the “could be anything” category, when you see how much stamina is in his pedigree. He’s a horse that travels so strongly at home and in his races that you’d say he probably goes more like a miler than a middle-distance horse, but he’s by Galileo and that always gives them a chance of staying.
We purposely are probably not going to go to the Guineas with him. He’s a little bit natural and a little bit like St Nicholas Abbey. We trained St Nicholas Abbey for the Guineas, who was a very generous horse and wanted to do it, and it just wasn’t the right thing long-term for him. I think we’re going to go to the Derby trials, and still won’t be sure whether he’ll get a mile and a quarter, but we’ll go that way and feel our way and if he doesn’t, we’ll come back in trip.
SAXON WARRIOR
bc (111-)
Deep Impact-Maybe
He’s done very well and is a massive, big, physical horse. He was a big horse last year but he’s bigger this year. We have our eye on the Guineas and we’re just hoping that we have him ready in time for it. He could well get a mile and a half as he has a relaxed way of doing it, so it will be very interesting with him. He’ll probably go straight for the Guineas. He could go for a run but I’d imagine he’ll probably go for a racecourse gallop instead.
SIOUX NATION
bc (3216116-)
Scat Daddy-Dream The Blues
He worked yesterday morning and we were kind of debating whether to go to Leopardstown for the (Guineas) trial with him, but obviously they all can’t go. Donnacha rode him work and he was of the opinion that he was a fast horse. There’s every chance he could end up being a five- or six-furlong horse.
THE PENTAGON
bc (6113-)
Galileo-Vadawina
We’re very happy with him. We didn’t think that he would run as well in the Racing Post Trophy as he did (third). He was off for three weeks and missed a lot of time. He was just ready to go racing. We were really wanting to get a run into him as we wanted to see was he as good as he showed at the Curragh when Ana rode him, and obviously he was. He’ll go for a Derby trial, even though we left him in the Guineas.
GUSTAV KLIMT
bc (511-)
Galileo-Massarra
We’re thinking the Guineas with Gustav Klimt and he could go to Leopardstown on the way there for the trial. Because he missed the second half of last year, and he’s a little bit round still, he might take a run in Leopardstown. He just had a slight muscle issue that held him up (after Newmarket). He wasn’t 100% behind.
ST PATRICK’S DAY
bc (21-)
Pioneerof The Nile-Littleprincessemma
He’s a brother to American Pharoah and he just came to us about a month ago. (He won a Del Mar maiden last September for Bob Baffert, in Sue Magnier’s colours).
We think and hope that he’ll be a Royal Ascot horse. It could be the Jersey or the St James’s Palace.
LEFT: U S Navy Flag with his groom Kurram Sheikh putting the sheet on after work at Ballydoyle
U S NAVY FLAG
bc (43301241110-)
War Front-Misty For Me
It’ll be a trial or straight to the Guineas. He improved with racing last year. We took him to the Breeders’ Cup to see if he’d get a mile but it was a non-event for him. They went very hard and the first two got burned off.
With his work this year you’d say that there is a good chance that he could get a mile. That’s why we might go to Leopardstown with a view to thinking about going to Newmarket afterwards. It would give us a little bit of a feeler with him.
Fillies
ACTRESS
bf (21262139-)
Declaration Of War-Nasty Storm
Actress might go to the fillies’ (Guineas) trial in Leopardstown.
CLEMMIE
bf (37111-)
Galileo-Meow
She’ll probably go straight to the Guineas. She has wintered well and we’re very happy with her. Obviously she’s not as big physically as Churchill (full-brother) was, but everything is right with her. She’s fast and I wouldn’t be sure how much further than a mile she’d stay.
HAPPILY
bf (7112110-)
Galileo-You’resothrilling
She has wintered very well. We were very happy with her all the way along last season.
You could say her run at the Breeders’ Cup wasn’t good, but she missed the break and got stopped three times down the straight. Ryan (Moore) just minded her then. You’d imagine she’ll definitely get a mile and a quarter and could get a mile and a half because she has a very laid back way of doing it.
I CAN FLY
bf (13-)
Fastnet Rock-Madonna Dell’Orto
A very nice filly and she could be a Guineas filly as well. She’s a filly that finished third in a group race at Newmarket (Oh So Sharp Stakes) towards the backend. She might go to Leopardstown with a view to going to the Guineas.
SEPTEMBER
bf (114323-)
Deep Impact-Peeping Fawn
We’ll probably train her for the Guineas, but with the view that she could get the Oaks trip. She’s put on enough weight and physically she’s changed. She’s not very big and never was, but she has loads of attitude. She believes that she’s big in her own head. She has a big personality. She ran a massive race in the Fillies’ Mile last year and ran a massive race in America as well (third in Breeders’ Cup).
You’d imagine she should stay. Deep Impact won over a mile and seven and Peeping Fawn won over a mile and a half.
Aidan gives the lowdown on...
... THe Dubai team
We will have three runners in the UAE Derby: Mendelssohn, Seahenge and Threeandfourpence.
Idaho is in good shape and will go for the mile and a half race (Sheema Classic). Lancaster Bomber will run in the mile and one furlong (Dubai Turf) and he could be joined by Deauville. Washington DC will go in the Sprint. We’ll do the best we can to get them there. It’s the first big festival, the [UAE] Derby is the perfect trial for the Kentucky Derby. Dubai will tell a lot.
... THE KENTUCKY DERBY
We don’t expect to win them. It’s a different country, different culture, surface, everything. All Northern Dancers came from dirt pedigrees. If you don’t try, if you fail, you try better the next time.
We went before but we didn’t have the races. Johannesburg ran well without having a run, Master Of Hounds ran respectable without having a run. This year they will have two runs.
We’ll find out in Dubai if he’ll [Mendelssohn] get a mile and a quarter. He’s a half-brother to Beholder. The most important thing is pace, and we’ll learn if he has the stamina.
... Irish racecourses
Dundalk: I wish there was another Dundalk. It’s the most amazing thing that has happened in Irish racing. I wish there was another one down here.
Naas: It’s an incredible facility. It’s brilliant that people are that proactive for us in racing in Ireland, people that are not afraid to push out the boat and do these things. The reality is to be competitive all over the world, we have to have those facilities for people to go racing and horses to go to race.
... THE TEAM
Emotionally, it can be very good for a person to be working with a horse because horses can be very sensitive to human beings and they can get a great response.
I see some people here and their horses are nearly like their pets. When you meet them in the morning, they mightn’t always want to see another human being but they’re very happy to see their pets.
If you want to know what someone’s personality is really like, you put them on a horse for three weeks or a month and that horse will develop the personality of the person that’s riding him. If the person riding is grumpy, the horse becomes grumpy. If the rider is happy, the horse becomes very happy. It’s a very strange thing with horses. They do really respond to human beings and human beings respond to them.
... Naming horses
Sue does them all and she does a great job on it. We rate the two-year-olds every week. They have an idea which are the best ones and they’ll be watching the ratings to see if they’d be going up or down before Sue would put the good names on a horse. It’s a difficult thing. She’d have so many names booked and she’d pick names to go with the personality. Clemmie was Churchill’s wife. If you ever see a good name on bad horse, it’s usually my fault!