AIDAN O’Brien has described the possibility of winning his third straight British trainers’ championship - and a ninth title in total - as “very important” and a “privilege” ahead of his key afternoon of battles with current leader Andrew Balding on British Champions Day at Ascot.

The master of Ballydoyle insists that chasing the championship “didn’t affect us really” in terms of diverting more firepower towards British meetings late in the year, citing Scandinavia and Diamond Necklace’s absence from today and Sun Goddess bypassing the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket last week, as he believed the horses would be suited better leaving those targets to one side.

With £4.35 million up for grabs in prize money this afternoon, the stakes remain high. After previously signalling his intent to run them in the opposite races, O’Brien feels he and connections have come to the right decision in running Constitution River in a small but select edition of the £1.3 million Qatar Racing Champion Stakes (4.00) and Gstaad in the £1.1 million Qatar Racing-sponsored Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (3.20).

Speaking at a press call arranged by Ascot following the publication of final fields, O’Brien explained: “We were thinking very strongly of running Gstaad over a mile and a quarter and Constitution River over a mile. But the way the week went on - and we saw it was going to be a very competitive Champion - we just thought it would be tough on Gstaad going into a mile-and-a-quarter race like that for the first time.

Course form

“We felt that Ascot suits him very well; he won the Coventry there and we think he’s an absolutely top-class miler. I think there were circumstances around a lot of the horses’ last runs, because they were all a little under the weather at the time. The same goes for Constitution River. He’s run over this trip a lot of times and we know what he can do.

“He’s beaten a couple of the very fancied horses in this race [Ombudsman in the Juddmonte International and Almaqam in the Irish Champion Stakes], and there were circumstances with the horses being under the weather. There’s a good chance he could improve on his last couple of runs.”

Pressed on the recent races when his string could have been feeling the effects of poor health, O’Brien added: “I’d say there were probably four, five or six Group 1s there where they weren’t finishing [well] and they were finishing second, and then all of a sudden there was an outbreak of coughing in the yard.

“Usually when they start coughing, it’s at the end of whatever they’ve had. There were SAAs [Serum Amyloid A] spiking up in their bloods for two or three months, stress/infection markers in their bloods that you look for, and then disappearing for no reason.

“That usually means infection, but we couldn’t find any infection. It was probably hanging around for a long time. We’ve given a lot of horses a course of antibiotics since and we think it has helped them and we’re very happy that their form has come back to where we think it should be.

“We always thought Constitution River had pace enough for a mile. In his last two runs, he went to the half-furlong marker and didn’t really quite finish off. There were some factors with how the races unfolded both days, but we weren’t sure at that time if he wasn’t staying or what. It’s very possible with the health of the horses at that time, he was just getting tired. When there’s something going on for a while, you will tire quicker. So, there’s a chance that was happening.”

‘Incredibly high standard’

O’Brien has bigger-priced chances elsewhere on the card, with Queenstown and Amelia Earhart in the Qatar Racing British Champions Long Distance Cup (1.30) and Confucius in the Qatar Racing British Champions Day Two-Year-Old Conditions Stakes (12.55). Hawk Mountain accompanies Gstaad in the QEII, while Minnie Hauk and Sugar Island fly the flag for the yard in the Qatar Racing British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (2.40) - a race where Balding’s shortest-priced runner of the day is engaged.

If wanting to maintain a lead in the championship (currently standing at close to £100,000), he insists it will be a critical contest. “I think Kalpana is a must-win for us,” said Balding. “Aidan just sets such an incredibly high standard and is going into the most important meeting with a stronger hand than us, so we are not expecting anything.

“We are just very proud of our achievements in getting as close as we have to him. He is a trainer of a generation, or generations really.

“With the amount of prize-money we have won, we might have won the championship any other year, but he is just extraordinary.”

On the 13-day turnaround between her latest fifth in the Arc and this Ascot assignment, he added: “I would have said exactly the same thing last year, but it is quite a difficult read when you are backing up this close. We’ve followed exactly the same programme as we did last year.

“I am slightly guessing, but she’s absolutely fine and appears to have come out of France really well. With regard to the rest of our team, it is not like I can transfer in six players. We’ve got what we’ve got and we can’t do any more, so it is in the lap of the gods.”

Balding remains the 9/4 outsider, according to Paddy Power, in the title battle, with O’Brien 1/3 favourite. The championship concludes at the end of the year.