O'Brien plots adventurous campaign with Auguste Rodin
STEEP CLIMB: Horses doing their morning exercise at Ballydoyle on Wednesday. Picture: Healy Racing
Where City Of Troy may tread, Auguste Rodin has already trodden. For Ireland’s Horse of the Year in 2023, a topsy-turvy season returned two Derbys, an Irish Champion Stakes, and a Breeders’ Cup Turf but was punctuated by disappointments in the Guineas and King George. The Deep Impact colt could have retired a success, but connections have made the decision to march on into his four-year-old campaign with more worlds to conquer.
One more piece of work will put him right for an early-season trip to Dubai for the Sheema Classic, a race his trainer, Aidan O’Brien, won with another great globetrotter, St Nicholas Abbey, in 2013.
“The world has gone small now,” says O’Brien, outlining a potentially busy campaign. “He has another bit of work to do before he goes on Saturday, but everything looks good at the moment. It's his first run of the year but we're very happy with him.
"The plan was he goes there, then he could go to the Curragh for the Tattersalls Gold Cup and then Ascot for the Prince of Wales's Stakes. After that, we could have a look at a dirt race, we'll see how that goes. He could go to Saratoga. His season will be split in two really, with a busy first half and then a break.
"As a rule, Deep Impacts are mainly turf horses, but we were surprised how well he worked on the dirt at the Breeders' Cup — he floated over it."
Disappointments are rarely far away in this sport, and a small setback recently suffered by Group 1-winning juvenile Opera Singer means she will miss her intended engagement in the Newmarket 1000 Guineas, on the first Sunday in May. Her absence leaves Ylang Ylang as the stable’s selected for the first fillies’ Classic of the season.
“I like her a lot,” he says, of the Frankel filly, also a Group 1 winner. “She did well to come back and do what she did in the Fillies’ Mile because everything went wrong with her the third day. She was too keen, and she had to go back to Newmarket and had to relax, and she ran a lovely race. But then to come back and do what she did in the Fillies’ Mile, from a tough race, you’d have to like her a lot.
“I spoke to Ryan (Moore) about her and he said she could get a mile and a half, though it’s not guaranteed. She’s out of a Shamardal mare, so there’s every chance, and the way she likes to be ridden will help her to get a mile and a half. She’s relaxing nicely in her work and doing all the right things.”
Would it have been a tough decision for Ryan Moore had Opera Singer also been an option for the Guineas?
“I don’t think so,” he replies. “Opera Singer is very good. What she did in the Boussac was… She’s another Justify, so set her off in front and ‘follow me if you want, and if you don’t want to follow me, that’s fine.’ She’s so uncomplicated, whereas the other filly, you have to take your time on her.”
Content is another filly to have had a promising first season and the daughter of a Nunthorpe-winning mare will need her sire Galileo’s stamina if she is to take up an engagement in the Irish Oaks. Her juvenile form stretched form stretched out to a mile, and she could yet get further this term, but the Guineas is also a possibility for her.
“We thought she had a lovely run first time, and then she went to Ascot and was a bit keen in a slowly-run race. She just lost her way a bit and we had to slow her down and get her to relax. She won at the Curragh with Chris (Hayes), and she came home very well in the Breeders’ Cup.
“You just have to take your time with her because she has plenty of speed and if you jump her out too handy, she’s inclined to do a bit too much. You have to let her relax in the first half and then see what’s going to happen. She could be a very nice filly.”
Along with the established stars, the emergence of the next generation is vitally important, and in a yard which pushes to just over 200 each term, half of which could be juveniles, many will be expected to make their mark. Even though none are yet named, a few came in for special mention.
“We think we have two good Justifys, out of two sisters (Fabulous and Butterflies),” he revealed. “And we have some nice Wootton Bassetts this year.
"Wootton Bassett looks very different, we only had two colts (River Tiber and Unquestionable) last year and both were very good.
"The Wootton Bassett out of Immortal Verse (a Group 1-winning mare who has already produced a Group 1 winner for the yard) looks very smart, as does the Wootton Bassett out of Ennistymon, but we’re just going gently with them."
An Arizona colt out of Princess Theodora may have been a relatively cheap purchase in the Ballydoyle surrounds but came in for a positive mention, as did a colt by 2019 French Derby and 2020 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass, out of Ayelet.
“We're starting earlier this season, and I was conscious that I didn't want to have them ready to run in that ground because they have to be very fit and if they are at this stage, then they won't make it through the summer.”
