More woe for O’Brien
With American Post a 4-11 chance to stretch his unbeaten record to six, the Irish raider burst out of the pack a furlong out under Jamie Spencer and looked sure to cause a huge turn-up as he went a length clear with less than 100 yards to run.
But just as victory looked assured, disaster suddenly struck as the colt jinked violently to the right, cannoned into the running rail and all but came to a complete standstill as his rider struggled to keep the partnership intact.
And much to the delight of the favourite's supporters, American Post who had failed to pick up in the manner expected when asked to quicken by Richard Hughes - suddenly found himself a most fortunate winner of the race as he passed the post half a length ahead of Diamond Green, who was badly hampered by the incident). Godolphin's Byron was a head back in third.
Antonius Pius and a shell-shocked Spencer scrambled across the line in fifth.
The remarkable circumstances of the contest contrived to leave connections of both the winner and the unlucky loser visibly deflated.
And after a race which did anything but cement the Vodafone Derby claims of American Post, one bookmaking firm removed the colt altogether from their ante-post betting for Epsom, with others pushing him out to 10-1 and longer.
Connections were inclined to blame the ground for their charge's performance.
"I tried to go on but they didn't let me and when I dropped in they slowed it right down it was no good to me at all," said Hughes.
"But he never really stretched for me like he can and personally I wouldn't want to run him on ground this fast again.
"He was staying on again at the finish and that's what won him the race. I don't think the trip (at Epsom) would be a problem, but the ground might be."
Trainer Criquette Head-Maarek added: "I didn't think he was running with his normal action today.
"We won't make any decisions for a week as to where he goes next and obviously I need to speak with the Prince (Khalid Abdullah) about it."
In the immediate aftermath of the race, Ladbrokes chose to remove the winner from their betting and make Yeats the 2-1 favourite for the Derby, with Paddy Power going 5-2 and Coral 11-4.
But the real story was that of Antonius Pius and the amazing way the clearly quirky colt threw the race away.
"He has got a turn of foot to kill any horse," said Spencer. "Aidan said that I should ride him like he was Nijinsky.
"I got a gap and he went flying through, but he just suddenly jinked right. He jinked so badly he hit the rail hard and he did well not to go down. He's got such serious ability and for him to lose the race like this is just unbelievable."
It was, nevertheless, not the first time that the colt has behaved in such a manner having been disqualified for hanging across the field in a similar incident at the track last month.
O'Brien speculated that his charge might have been "playing around" once hitting the front. "When the gap came, he went straight through and quickened clear but, for some reason, he did what he did," he said.
"I don't know what it was, maybe he shied away from the stands, I need to have a look at the replay. But he seems to be all right now and with the Irish Guineas only a week away, the St James's Palace Stakes could be his next race."
After the poor recent performances of One Cool Cat, Necklace and Brian Boru to name but a few, O'Brien has not enjoyed much in the way of good luck and will be hoping that things can get back on track over the next fortnight.
They will not, however, be getting back on track with the help of his stable jockey after the stewards banned Spencer for six days (May 25-30), having adjudged him guilty of failing to take sufficient corrective action to prevent the horse from hanging right. Having already missed plenty of action so far this season through suspension (two days of which were collected for his ride aboard Antonius Pius on the colt's previous start), the ban will hit the jockey hard.
And considering that the horse's actions appeared to cause the incident as much as Spencer's, it seemed a harsh decision against the rider to say the very least, especially given that he had his whip in the correct hand throughout.
Meanwhile Rockstown Boy - Jamie Spencer is a significant booking - has a sporting chance of turning over some useful three-year-olds in the Castlerea Maiden at Roscommon this evening.
Successful in two bumpers, Charles Byrnes' charge has always hinted at being well capable of landing a flat race.
Although ultimately outclassed, he ran a solid race last time, at the Punchestown Festival over flights, finishing a creditable fourth behind Brave Inca.
Eldorado is the highest rated horse in the contest, but has not been progressing along expected lines. He was quite disappointing behind Tarakala at Gowran Park last time and prior to that at Leopardstown as well.
Russian Tzar and a pair of John Oxx trained filles are also worth considering, but Rockstown Boy to run a big race is the prediction.
