Delacroix delighting O'Brien with 'perfect' Derby preparation
CLASSIC CONTENDER: Delacroix boasts rock-solid Derby claims having won two trials this year. Picture: Damien Eagers/PA
Aidan O'Brien expects Ryan Moore will have a tricky time choosing his Betfred Derby ride — but Delacroix might be in pole position.
The Dubawi colt, who is out of the late and great Tepin, has won both starts this year, in the Ballysax Stakes and the Leopardstown Derby Trial, a route taken in the past by the likes of O'Brien giants such as Galileo and High Chaparral.
In the Ballysax he beat fellow Epsom entrant and stablemate Lambourn, who went on to take the Chester Vase in good style.
Added into the mix is winter Classic favourite The Lion In Winter, who may have failed to land a blow in the Dante but is far from out of the equation as his trainer has plenty of form for making a Derby winner out of a horse beaten in a trial.
Those are the options O'Brien anticipates stable jockey Moore will be presented with, with Delacroix seemingly considered the more persuasive choice at this stage.
"The three strongest horses at the moment for the Derby are Lambourn, the horse that won the Chester Vase, Delacroix, who won in Leopardstown, and the horse that ran in the Dante (The Lion In Winter). They look the three strongest," O'Brien said.
"I would imagine Ryan has the choice between them. The horse in the Dante has to come on and everything has to go right for him, and it has gone right so far.
"Delacroix has done absolutely everything perfect so far. He has done everything right and his preparation has gone perfect.
"He's by Dubawi, but his sister by Galileo (Grateful) won over a mile and six (Prix de Royallieu). He's a total outcross, he's out of a superstar mare and he's by Dubawi so he's a very exciting type of horse.
"They've another couple of weeks to go. I would imagine Ryan will find it hard not to ride him, but that doesn't mean he won't ride him."
O'Brien also holds a strong hand for the Oaks, and expects Minnie Hauk, Giselle, and Whirl to be key players from Ballydoyle.
He said: "In the Oaks, the filly that won at Chester (Minnie Hauk), the filly that won the Lingfield trial (Giselle) and the filly the filly that won the Musidora (Whirl) are the strongest ones.
"What will happen is that the lads will decide a week or 10 days before. I would imagine those six are on that route."
Meanwhile, O'Brien was not discouraged by Storm Boy's beaten effort on his Irish debut in the Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday.
The Justify three-year-old was formerly campaigned in Australia by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and was a multiple Group-race winner in that jurisdiction.
Having been shipped to the other side of the world he made his debut for O'Brien at Group 2 level, but did not live up to his billing as the 6-4 favourite when coming home last of nine runners.
His trainer was not overly deflated, however, and is glad to have completed a valuable fact-finding mission before Royal Ascot.
"He had never been galloped or worked, but we had to run him to find out what else we had to work on between now and Ascot," he said.
"We learned that we have a good bit to work on, but I was very happy to do that.
"He was beaten less than six lengths and he got a bad enough check at the two (furlong) marker. You could take another two off that, so he probably would have been beaten less than four lengths.
"That was a very respectable run. I know everyone was disappointed, but we'll take him home now and we're going to train him.
"We haven't really trained him yet and hopefully what we think will come, will come."
