Aidan O'Brien: If we have a horse that could do the Triple Crown, Auguste Rodin is the one

The master of Ballydoyle nominated Alabama and Brighter as horses to follow this season

IN COMMAND: Aidan O'Brien talks tactics with his work riders ahead of the horses' morning exercise on the famous Ballydoyle gallops. Pic: Healy Racing

We stand at that point of the year when the dust has barely settled on Prestbury Park, with the National Hunt season far from over, but with the focus switching to the Flat.

It is a confusing time as one makes the virtual handover to the other. Were it a relay, we would be in those yards off the crown of the final bend, when the third leg is straining to pass the baton, hand stretched out fully but not yet close enough to reach the anchor, who is just rising from the ground, arm stretched back ready to flash into action.

If there is one place to visit that can administer that blow which might banish the Cheltenham memories and open up the mind to what lies ahead on the turf, it is Ballydoyle on a brisk spring morning.

Approaching from the backroads in the darkness, one is first greeted by a stretch of lights which, upon revelation, lead all the way down the gallops. It’s early, but not here, where work has long since been underway, not just for the day, but for the season ahead.

“They’d start off on the first week of January, but they canter all winter,” revealed Ballydoyle maestro Aidan O’Brien, who interrupts himself regularly to communicate with and coordinate his team.

“I think we’re okay (where we are at the moment). The horses that are running are running respectable. They’re not wound up. When the ground got soft the way it did, you’re always a bit worried that they will get tired — and the odd one still will.

“It’s a balance of having them fit enough to win and not to have them too fit, either. If they’re not fit enough, it will do too much harm to them, and if they’re too fit, they’ll peak too early. It’s a little bit of a tricky time, especially when the ground was very good and then it swung back the other way very quickly. You can’t change what you’re doing in two weeks.

“You can tweak it, but we would always be working on a six- or seven-week pattern. You can tweak it as you go along, and that can work, but you can’t change anything drastically. It can be fine-line enough.” 

The turf season began this past weekend, and O’Brien sent out two winners at Naas to complement Broome’s success 24 hours earlier at the Dubai World Cup meeting. While 2023 is still in its infancy, the stable has already suffered a couple of high-profile setbacks.

Kyprios was the star stayer of last season, winning on all six starts, including in the Ascot Gold Cup, the Goodwood Cup, the Irish Leger, and the Prix Du Cardan, but the Moyglare entire is unlikely to be ready to defend his Ascot Crown.

O’Brien said: “I don’t think he will make the Gold Cup. He got a little bit of an infection in a joint and it’s not settling down. It happened a month ago and it’s just not settling. We’ll just have to wait and see.” 

Statuette, who was one of last season’s most promising juvenile fillies, was expected to have a major impact in the early-season Classics, but the daughter of Justify will likely have to wait much longer to showcase her talents.

“She is on a little bit of a hold-up,” he added. “I don’t think she’s going to make the Guineas. We’ll go gently with her and see what happens.” 

But they are just two in this stable of enviable wealth, and a couple of colts still firmly on track for the Newmarket 2000 Guineas are Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear.

The latter was the top-rated two-year-old in Europe last season and while the step up to a mile is an unknown, O’Brien is more than hopeful.

“Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear will be aimed at Newmarket (2000 Guineas) and then the lads will have to decide whether they will let the two of them run together or split them up. They were obviously two very classy colts last year, and what Little Big Bear did in the Phoenix was just different.

“He would be very comfortable and happy to go back sprinting any time, but there’s a very good chance he will get a mile. He races very relaxed.” 

Auguste Rodin, who wrapped up his first season with that runaway success in the Vertem Futurity at Doncaster, impressed in a piece of work last weekend at the Curragh, and the pace he showed that day suggested to connections that he could be a Guineas horse, despite their belief that he will stay much further.

“We were also very impressed with Auguste Rodin in Doncaster as everything went wrong in the race,” admitted O’Brien. “You would imagine he would have no bother stretching out to a mile and a quarter, or a mile and a half.” 

Talk of a Triple Crown may be premature, but if such a horse exists in Ballydoyle, look no further.

“If we have a horse that could do that, he’s the one, he’s that type of horse,” said O’Brien. “We were nearly not running him at Doncaster because of the ground, as he’s an exceptional mover, very, very slick, very long, very low mover. He is that type of horse that could start in the Guineas and stretch out.

“He was always very classy, from the first time Ryan rode him. I remember Ryan riding him in February, as a two-year-old, and he was raving about him then.” 

Among the older brigade, Tenebrism and Luxembourg warrant special mention. The latter missed an important phase of last season but overcame that setback to win the Irish Champion Stakes. That race may be on the agenda once more, though there are many important stopovers along the way.

“The plan is to start him off in the Prix Ganay,” revealed O’Brien. “We’re very happy with him at the moment. He was at the Curragh at the weekend and we’re very happy with what he did. Physically he has done very well since last year. We’re thinking of the Ganay, the Tattersalls Gold Cup, the Prince of Wales at Royal Ascot, and then on we go from there.

“Last season, he came back and won at the Curragh and then at Leopardstown and then went to France, but the ground got bad. He had a tough race in the Champion Stakes. It was a good, competitive race, but because he had the time off in the middle, I think it probably took its toll on him a little bit. We’re looking forward to him now.” 

O’Brien admits that Tenebrism was campaigned over the wrong trip for much of last season but that mistake will not be repeated with the high-class filly.

“She is going to go sprinting and will probably start in one of the local sprints. She’s nearly ready to go. She’s a fast filly, and I’d say five or six furlongs would be comfortable for her.

“Last year we were dallying around with her, seeing where we were going to go, but the minute we started sprinting with her, it was very obvious she was a sprinter. She’s very quick.

“She’ll be trained differently. Last year, we were trying to stretch her out, to see how far she would go, and she was still very competitive at those distances because she’s just a good filly.” 

Others to come in for favourable mention, having reportedly wintered well, were The Antarctic, Alexandroupolis, Boogie Woogie, Beginnings, Tower Of London, Alfred Munnings, Hiawatha, and Hans Andersen.

At this time last year, when he greeted the press for the annual stable tour, O’Brien offered then unraced two-year-old Little Big Bear as one to follow. 

That worked out well for those who heeded the advice and, while they have much to live up to, Alabama and Brighter were put forward as two with the potential to go a long way.