Fran Berry visits Ballydoyle to get a run down on Aidan O'Brien's big hopes for the new flat season.
OLDER HORSES
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ
He’s going to be trained for the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot and will have a run or two beforehand. He’s in good shape and moving well.
JAN BRUEGHEL
He’s very well, done very well and working very well but he’s going to have to stand in line with Kyprios I’d imagine. None of them are going to want to take him on so I thought he could go to Ascot for the Gold Cup or Hardwicke with a run before. If Kyprios is there in the Gold Cup there’s probably no point in any of ours running against him. I’d imagine he’s a mile-and-a-half-plus horse.
KYPRIOS
He's back and in great shape and the plan is to go back to Ascot with two runs beforehand. Then everything else can fall into line after that. Everything is very good with him at the moment, he’s very comfortable. He’s a great horse, he’s incredible. He goes forward, plants himself in second gear and falls asleep. He’s always been like that at home, even when he was a two-year-old. I remember when we took him to Newmarket for the Zetland Stakes, and he went asleep and didn’t wake up at all in the race. His personality is the same still. Ryan rides him great.
LOS ANGELES
We’re very happy with him. The plan is to go for the Tattersalls Gold Cup. He might have a run in one of those mile-and-a-quarter races before, but he’s done very well physically. We feel to go back to the Arc would suit him well. It didn’t work out for him last year where he ended up making the running and he’d prefer to be getting a lead, but he could be a very legitimate horse this time around. He’s big and powerful.
STORM BOY
He’s fast. Before he came down [from Australia], we didn’t know how fast he was going to be but he is very quick. The plan is to go to Ascot with maybe a run at the Curragh in the Greenlands beforehand. He’s quick and you’d be very happy with everything he’s doing.
TOWER OF LONDON
In good shape and working well. He was at the Curragh last weekend and we were very happy. We’re thinking of going to France for the Group One early with him rather than running into Kyprios at home.
THREE-YEAR-OLDS
BALLET SLIPPERS
She had a lovely run at the Curragh where one of Donnacha’s fillies beat her and he loves her. Ballet Slippers ran very well in the Fillies’ Mile, and we were going back to France with her for a race over a mile-and-quarter but she got injured. She’s back and we’ll train her for the Oaks. She’s a grand filly.
BEDTIME STORY
She’s good but a little highly-strung, a bit like her sister Content. I’d imagine her next run she’ll be second or third string and there’ll be no pressure on her and we can try to switch her off and see what happens. She was a very quick learner who probably wanted to overdo things, and she was a bit too keen on her two runs after Ascot but she’s smart. We thought the sister wouldn’t stay a mile-and-a-half, but she did and there must be a chance she will too.
BUBBLING
A No Nay Never filly who could get a mile, most of them don’t but she could. It looks like it might be within her compass and she’s probably a Guineas filly as well.
CAMILLE PISSARRO
We always thought he was very good but he didn’t win a Group One right until the end of the season, so I’d say we probably got it wrong with him. He’s a fast horse, we think a mile is as far as he’s going to go and he’ll have to be ridden to get it. Christophe (Soumillon) was very impressed with him in France, he won very nicely, and I’d say we were riding him wrong and doing the wrong things with him before then. Now we know him, we should be better with him this season and he’s a classy horse. He’s a possible for the Guineas.
DELACROIX
He’s very well, in good shape and was at the Curragh as well. We view him as a middle-distance horse, and I’d imagine he’ll start in one of the trials with the view to being a Derby horse.
DREAMY
She’s not quick enough for a Guineas but she’s an Oaks filly. We ran her in the Fillies’ Mile just to see. She’ll prefer going a mile-and-a-half and is a lovely, big filly who’ll like nice ground.
EXACTLY
She’s going very well and is a very good filly. She could run in a Guineas in England or France and is very straightforward. You can ride her up there and she’s working great and was very good the last day. We made too much use of her in the Boussac but she’s very smart.
FAIRY GODMOTHER
She’s very good. She was away at the Curragh last weekend and I’m very happy with her. She did an unusual thing at Ascot, winning as she did, and worked seven furlongs with ease in the ground at the Curragh and got it very well. It’s very possible she could go to the Guineas without a run.
GISELLE
We haven’t seen the best of her yet. She had a few little hold-ups but was away at the Curragh and we’re looking at her as an Oaks filly with a trial before. She’s headstrong and always trying to do a little more than you want her to, but she’s big, powerful and strong.
HENRI MATISSE
He’s a fast horse who likes fast ground and to come late. I put blinkers on him in bad ground in France last season and he got a bad bump and got frightened but went on to win very well in America. What he did there is a very difficult thing to do, coming from a bad draw and a long way back and he still got there easily. I don’t think Ryan hit him and he’s a horse with a lot of ability. A very good mover, we wouldn’t be in a rush to go on soft ground with him again.
LAKE VICTORIA
She was at the Curragh as well. She had a longer break than the others because her year ran long. She went nicely last weekend in an easy piece of work and I’m not sure she’ll make the Guineas but we’re training her for it. If she doesn’t come in time, she’ll go to the Curragh the day after. Knowing her she’ll probably come in time, she’s that type of filly, and physically has done very well. She’s fast.
LORD BYRON
A staying horse who will want a trip. He was green on debut at Punchestown but came home well and is probably going to want a mile-and-a-half plus.
THE LION IN WINTER
He’s in good shape but took a little time to come right so he’s a little behind the others. He was at the Curragh last weekend and went well, the work was easy what he did. Whether he’ll make it in time for the Guineas I’m not sure, we’ll know in the next week or so. But if he doesn’t, he might be trained for something like the Dante and go straight to the Derby. He’s very well but just carrying plenty of condition so he might not make Newmarket. In the next couple of weeks, we’ll know.
MINNIE HAUK
A filly who has improved a lot. She’s an Oaks Trial/Oaks filly and has done very well physically.
TAKEMETOTHEMOON
An Uncle Mo half-sister to City Of Troy and she’s lovely. She’s a lovely-moving filly and she’ll get a mile-and-a-quarter well and looks like a Stakes filly.
STAY TRUE
A son of Galileo out of Bounce. He hasn’t run and he’s the last one for me by the sire and not far away from a run. Hopefully he’s smart.
TWAIN & EXPANDED
What they did last year was very unusual. The two of them came out late and went back within five or six days for a Group One, both of them. Twain won in France and Expanded just got beat in the Dewhurst.
He got a bit of a raw deal in that he was going to Newmarket for experience as second string behind The Lion In Winter and then he didn’t run and he got put into the front line and ran very well.
Twain has done very well physically and he’ll have no problem with good ground.
WHISTLEJACKET
A fast horse. Six furlongs is his trip, he went to the Curragh and worked well.
TWO-YEAR-OLDS
They’ll be ready to start in the next two or three weeks. We’ve a lot to go and you’d have to be very happy with them at the moment.
We try to get a run into everything if we can and eight or ten are ready to go, lovely relaxed, laidback horses.
Ones I’ll mention at this stage are a St Mark’s Basilica colt out of Step Sequence, there’s a No Nay Never colt out of Muirin, a Wootton Bassett colt out of Yet.
There’s another Wootton Bassett colt out of Hence, a Starspangledbanner colt out of Mosa Mine, a St Mark’s Basilica colt out of Willow and another St Mark’s Basilica colt out of Archangel Gabriel who is a fast horse too.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll know more. They’re not named yet, Sue Magnier will be doing that, and she usually puts the good names to the good horses. She’s always done that.
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