IT’s quite unusual for a 2000 Guineas winner for whom such high hopes were held a month ago to now come to the Curragh with a need to re-establish himself at the top of the three-year-old ranks. Even more so that it is an Aidan O’Brien-trained colt. In some ways, Saxon Warrior is similar to El Gran Senor, who was an odds-on loser at Epsom after his emphatic Guineas win.

In those days we more used to the Derby winner coming to consolidate his position as the top three-year-old and to see off the French winner.