Aidan O'Brien three-year-old stars including Auguste Rodin, Paddington and Savethelastdance

'O’Brien has scant regard for what is ordinary'

There was a point in the Epsom Derby on Saturday, just as they straightened up for home and raced to the three-furlong marker, when Ryan Moore took Auguste Rodin towards the outside and gave him a squeeze.

When he did, the Deep Impact colt picked up instantly, so much so that his rider was able to wait, allow the colt's momentum take him past rivals on the outside, delay the dig-deep request until he absolutely had to go for it.

It was a key moment in the race, that question at that time. And the colt's response told his rider and everybody watching that he had plenty of energy left. It was energy that he would use two furlongs and about 22 seconds later to take him past the gallant King Of Steel and into the record books.

Auguste Rodin’s victory at Epsom on Saturday was noteworthy for myriad reasons.

It brought up Aidan O’Brien’s ninth Derby for starters. Not that the champion trainer needed it to take him into the record books as a trainer – he had already trained more Derby winners than anybody else in the history of the race – but it took him level as a trainer with Lester Piggott’s record in the Derby as a rider, and that is obviously significant.

It was also a 10th win in the race for the Coolmore partners, extending their record, and a third for Ryan Moore, 10 years after his previous win in the race on Ruler Of The World, and it was a first for the late stallion Deep Impact, the Japanese champion.

But one of the most noteworthy aspects of this victory was the sure-footed pre-race confidence that his trainer had in Auguste Rodin. You finish 12th in the Guineas, it is unlikely that you will darken Epsom’s door a month later in the ordinary course of events, not to mind taking the laurels. But Aidan O’Brien has scant regard for what is ordinary. The Derby was always the plan after the Guineas, regardless of what happened in the Guineas, and that plan was steadfast.

More than that, there was a certainty about the trainer’s confidence. It wasn’t a roll-the-dice tilt at the Derby, sure we’re here now, we’ll see how we go. It was an unwavering commitment. A solid conviction. A quiet assurance that we would see a different horse at Epsom to the one that we had seen at Newmarket.

Nothing went right in the Guineas, Aidan told us. They couldn’t fly over in the morning as usual for starters. Then there was the ground and the distance and the run through the race. It was just a write-off run.

Even so, common consensus was that, if he pulled this one off, winning the Derby with a horse who finished 12th in the Guineas, this one would be up there with the champion trainer’s finest achievements.

And it is.

Where next for Auguste Rodin? The Irish Derby is the obvious call, and bookmakers have put him in at 4/6 and 4/7 for that. Precedent dictates. Seven of Aidan O’Brien’s previous eight Epsom Derby winners all ran in the Irish Derby. Indeed, the only one who didn’t was Serpentine, who won the Epsom Derby in the topsy-turvy year that was 2020, when the Epsom Derby was run on July 4, a week after the Irish Derby.

There is talk of the Eclipse mind you, and that would be an interesting project. Auguste Rodin is already a stallion in waiting, a Derby winner, a son of Deep Impact and the first foal out of Rhododendron, a daughter of Galileo and winner of the Fillies’ Mile, the Prix de l’Opera and the Lockinge Stakes, a Group 1 winner at two, three and four. But if he could win the Eclipse as well, over 10 furlongs, against his elders in early July, that would obviously further enhance his reputation and his value and his hoofprint in racing history.

Paddington pick of the milers?

The Derby win was a significant enhancement of the strength of the Classic crop at Ballydoyle. Paddington is different to Auguste Rodin, in that he didn’t go into winter quarters with a Classic favourite's tag stapled to his every move.

Winner of his maiden on his second run last season, Paddington started off this season at Naas in March in the Madrid Handicap, which he duly won well.

The Madrid is a handicap, but it has previous. Awtaad won the Madrid Handicap in 2016, then won the Listed Tetrarch Stakes and the Irish 2000 Guineas, and Paddington trod those steps this year. He was impressive too in winning the Irish Guineas, he quickened up smartly and he stayed on strongly to win by two lengths.

The Siyouni colt holds an entry in the Eclipse too (and in the Irish Derby incidentally) – and you can see him stepping up in trip at some point – but the St James’s Palace Stakes looks like the logical race for him, a race for which he is generally available at 5/2 or 11/4. He could make an indelible mark as a miler.

Interesting that the colt who could emerge as Aidan O’Brien’s best three-year-old miler did not run in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. The two who did have already embarked on divergent paths, Auguste Rodin up in trip to win the Derby, Little Big Bear down in trip to win the Sandy Lane Stakes.

It is not wholly surprising that events have panned out thus. Going into the Guineas, the sense was that Auguste Rodin might get away with a trip as short as a mile, and that Little Big Bear might get away with a trip as long as a mile. In the end, neither did. Events conspired against both.

Just as Auguste Rodin left the Guineas in his rear-view mirror at Epsom on Saturday, Little Big Bear did so at Haydock a week earlier. Dropped back to six furlongs for the Group 3 Sandy Lane Stakes, he looked very good in winning easily by over a length. He may have been helped by racing close to the stands rail, but he couldn't have done much more than he did.

Winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes at the Royal meeting last year on his only run to date at Ascot, you can understand why he is clear favourite for the Commonwealth Cup.

Don't give up on vanquished fillies

Savethelastdance had no answer to Soul Sister’s finishing surge in the Epsom Oaks on Friday, but she kept on gamely to just get the better of Caernarfon for the runner-up spot.

Aidan O’Brien’s filly was sent off at a shade of odds-on for the fillies’ Classic on the back of a devastating performance on soft ground in the Cheshire Oaks, which she won by 22 lengths and after which she had the clock-watchers purring. Different conditions at Epsom, good to firm as opposed to the soft or heavy ground on which she had raced in each of her previous three races, but she stuck to her task admirably.

She remains a high-class filly on all types of ground, and it will be interesting to see where she goes now, but it may be that she will come into her own when the ground eases again in the autumn.

Only sixth in the 1000 Guineas on soft ground on her seasonal return, Meditate put that run behind her when she finished second to Tahiyra in the Irish 1000 Guineas. She battled back gamely on the far side when she was headed by Tahiyra at the furlong marker, but Dermot Weld’s filly is top class, and she just couldn’t repel her.

Winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland last November, it may be that Meditate is at her best on fast ground. She is unbeaten in two runs on good to firm ground or faster. She beat the Guineas winner Mawj by almost two lengths in winning the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot last year on good to firm ground, and she could be a big player if she takes her chance in the Coronation Stakes there this year.

www.donnmcclean.com

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