AIDAN O’Brien stepped out of Barn 17 on the Churchill Downs backstretch at little before 7 a.m. Friday, following his four Ballydoyle charges to the racetrack and scouted out a good spot to watch Mendelssohn turn in his last bit of work before Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

O’Brien, with Mendelssohn’s co-owner Derrick Smith, jockey Ryan Moore and members of the Coolmore and Ballydoyle team in tow, settled on the outside elevated porch of the backstretch clocker’s stand.