Aidan O’Brien continued his domination of the classic trials at Chester when Constitution River won the Boodles Raindance Dee Stakes with real authority on Thursday.

On a controversial afternoon on the Roodee when the second race was delayed by over an hour due to a track inspection, the field for the Derby trial was weakened by the withdrawal of the William Haggas-trained Morshdi, with connections unhappy with ground conditions.

O’Brien was happy to run his son of Wootton Bassett, however, and having landed the Cheshire Oaks with Amelia Earhart and the Chester Vase with Benvenuto Cellini, Constitution River justified 2/9 favouritism with the minimum of fuss.

Whereas Golden Story struggled with the twists and turns, the Ballydoyle inmate, a Group 2 winner last season, travelled as if on rails for Ryan Moore, beating Generic by seven lengths.

Moore said: “He’s a gorgeous horse with very smart form as a juvenile. He had a slight setback and had to miss the end of the year, but he will improve for this race and gave me a lovely feel and I think he’s an exciting horse.

“He’s probably fine at 10 furlongs, but I would say he would have no problem going up in trip and there’s plenty of options open to him.”

Constitution River was made 7/1 for Epsom by Derby sponsors Betfred, although O’Brien had previously stated he could be a candidate for the French equivalent, while the colt also holds an entry for the St James’s Palace Stakes back over a mile at Royal Ascot.

Ticking boxes

Paul Smith, son of Coolmore partner Derrick Smith, said: “You couldn’t be more happy really. He did it well on his first run for a long time and there was a lot of freshness there, but he’s a good looking lad who ticks a lot of boxes. We’re excited.

“We’re going to have all the trials over the next week then sit down and decide who goes where.

“I think 10 furlongs, 12 furlongs or a mile, all the options are there and Ryan was delighted with him. Hopefully all the horses this week will bounce out of their races well and can be ready to run wherever next month.

“He has the St James’s Palace entry and he seems to quicken well so I guess you could drop him back if you wanted to. It’s just what the team want to do with him really.”

O’Brien was not at Chester but told the Press Association from Ballydoyle: “I haven’t had chance to speak to anyone yet, I’ve only seen it on TV, but he looked very nice.

“We were very happy with him. We loved him last year and were really looking forward to seeing him run.

“The reason for running him today was to give us the option of the Derby by running him at Chester, obviously the lads will have a good chat with Ryan and see what they are all thinking.

“We’ve now got the option of going to Epsom as well as France so that’s what we were thinking.”