O’Brien weaving classic magic

Joseph O’Brien feels Magician heads into today’s Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh as a relatively unexposed horse – despite him lining up for what will be his sixth race.

Having only won one of his four starts at two, Magician turned up at Chester for the Dee Stakes rather unheralded compared to many of his contemporaries at Ballydoyle but he bolted up, prompting Derby quotes in the process.

Rather than stepping up to a mile and a half, however, he comes back to a mile but his young jockey, who is bidding for a hat-trick in the race after wins on Roderic O’Connor and Power, does not envisage that being a problem