Chester Vase hints Derby domination for Aidan O'Brien

Aidan O’Brien now has eight Chester Vases on his mantelpiece. These aren’t small vases, either. They look like the FA Cup. I worry about O’Brien’s mantelpiece. But don’t worry about his Investec Derby horses, they are coming along just nicely.

Fresh from saddling the first three home in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown on Sunday, O’Brien was at it again at Chester. Watching the action on the big screen in the parade ring, he saw three of his horses fill the first three positions, Ryan Moore leading them home aboard 5/2 favourite Venice Beach with Wings Of Eagles and The Anvil not far behind.

Of O’Brien’s previous seven Chester Vase winners, only Ruler Of The World has gone on to win the Derby. But Treasure Beach ran a fine race in second at Epsom, as did US Army Ranger last year. Soldier Of Fortune and Golden Sword both ran fifth, with only Orchestra and Hans Holbein really letting the side down.

So will Venice Beach be another Ruler Of The World or another Hans Holbein? I suspect he might be somewhere in between. A 16/1 chance for the Derby now, Venice Beach is still third best in the Ballydoyle pecking order according to the ante-post betting. 

Cliffs Of Moher is the interesting one. He’s 8/1 second-favourite for the Derby and he runs in the Dee Stakes here on Friday. Another son of Galileo, obviously, he smashed up Orderofthegarter in a Leopardstown maiden on October 29 and that horse was an easy winner of the same track’s 2,000 Guineas Trial on April 8.

No wonder O’Brien can’t wait to see him run.

“It will be interesting to see the horse tomorrow and it will be interesting to see the horse on Saturday [Sir John Lavery, in the Lingfield Derby Trial],” O’Brien said. “They’re just ready to start. They were exciting horses last year and have had one or two little niggles, so they’re just a little bit behind the others.

“They work like very nice classy horses. The horse tomorrow (Cliffs of Moher) I’m really looking forward to seeing him run, obviously, but he will improve for the run.”

Someone in the winners’ enclosure patted O’Brien on the back and joked ‘Well done Aidan, you’re getting the hang of this now,’ to which the trainer smiled before turning to attend to Venice Beach’s winner’s rug and have a quiet conversation with the winning jockey.

He probably didn’t say to Moore what he said to the press, but he said to the press that Chester will bring on Venice Beach as much mentally as it will physically, before explaining just why he loves to run his horses at this unique track.

“I think the horse today will have learnt a lot, I think the second horse will have learnt a lot and the third horse is very solid. He knows more than any of them.

“We love Chester because the ground’s always immaculate, it’s a great atmosphere here and the horses are turning when racing the whole time. It’s a beautiful place to come racing. It’s all plusses for us and the horses come out of it very well usually.

“Usually horses that have a little bit of catching up to do [come here], for mental sharpness. You have to learn a lot obviously before you go into the Derby. You can learn a lot in a short time here.”

With his Chester experience under his belt, Venice Beach looks to have at least booked his ticket to the Derby. But plenty of O’Brien’s cards are still to be played in the lead up to the Epsom Classic. Trial season is only just under way and then there’s the Churchill question as well. The Guineas trials didn’t matter in the end. Churchill saw to that. But the Derby could be a different story.

The way things are shaping up, though, O’Brien’s sixth Derby looks well within reach. I’m sure it won’t be long until he’s the leading trainer in the race, eight Derby trophies glistening on a different, but hopefully solid, mantelpiece.

The need for speed

While today’s Ballydoyle representatives were displaying their prowess over middle distances, with Deauville winning the Huxley Stakes as well, O’Brien excitedly spoke about the imminent unveiling of his potential superstar speedster Caravaggio.

Unbeaten in four as a juvenile including wins in the Coventry Stakes and Phoenix Stakes, connections have resisted the temptation to try him over a mile in a Classic and he now heads to Royal Ascot Trials Day at Naas on May 21.

Wiping his windswept hair from his brow, O’Brien said: “He probably won’t run [in the French Guineas]. He’s going to go sprinting. Peace Envoy and Orderofthegarter will probably be declared [for France], I would suggest. That’s what we’re thinking at the moment.

“He’ll probably go in the Lacken Stakes. He’s very fast. We’ve never seen how far he will stay but he’s very very quick. He was like that last year. He was the only horse I ever saw that you’d ask to quicken in a five or six-furlong race and he’d stun them he’d try and quicken so much.”

The Commonwealth Cup, for which he is a 4/1 chance at Sky Bet, remains his big early-season target, but the feeling is this could be the three-year-old sprinter Coolmore have been looking for since Mozart. And that means the July Cup, for which he is already an 8/1 chance with one bookmaker.

“I see no point in taking on his elders when we don’t have to,” O’Brien said, when discussing his Royal Ascot target. After Ascot, though, you have to. And Caravaggio in the July Cup could be a very pretty picture indeed.

Family Fortunes

It was a good day for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum who had a couple of winners including Khairaat who impressively won the opening handicap off a mark of 91.

Richard Hills was representing the owner and was all smiles as he reminisced on his three Huxley Stakes victories aboard Maraahel, a relation of Thursday’s winner, who was also trained by Sir Michael Stoute.

Hills said: “We took our time with him, we had quite a lot of niggly problems from two to three. Once we got over those it was onward and upward.

“He’s bred to handle the track, isn’t he? His dam’s a half-sister to Maraahel so he couldn’t let him down.

“He’s a very versatile horse. We’ll see how he comes out of here and take each step at a time.”

That next step could be the Wolferton Handicap at Royal Ascot, as he’s looking at a mark towards the low 100s after this. Stoute has a good record in that race and Khairaat looks the perfect fit, being the sort of late-maturing improver his trainer does so well with.