A moment of celebration and satisfaction for Aidan O'Brien

Betfred Derby reaction: David Ord verdict on Auguste Rodin and Aidan O'Brien

By David Ord

16:27 · SUN June 04, 2023

Our man at the track David Ord reflects on Auguste Rodin's Betfred Derby win for the remarkable Aidan O'Brien.

From the gloom of a “non-event”, dreary afternoon at Newmarket where dreams of a Triple Crown were bogged down in the 2000 Guineas mud to Betfred Derby glory at a sun-drenched Epsom.

Was this Aidan O’Brien’s finest hour?

And let’s be fair – the bar was already pretty high.

Auguste Rodin was his ninth Derby winner. He’s won seven 1000 Guineas, ten 2000 Guineas, ten Oaks, six St Legers, two Arc de Triomphes and three Champion Hurdles to name but a few.

The modern-day O’Brien at Ballydoyle is surpassing even the achievements of predecessor Vincent at the legendary training base.

And never before has a Derby winner been rebuilt in four weeks quite like this.

He was always his connections' single dart for Epsom. The one around whom the whole season was based. It’s hard to imagine how deflated they must have felt boarding the plane back to Tipperary on the first Saturday of May.

But their faith never wavered, the ‘one horse’ mantra continued in the build-up to Saturday and the warning signs were there.

Auguste Rodin finished 12th of 14 at Newmarket, stablemate Little Big Bear last of all. He improved 64 pounds on Timeform performance ratings when winning the Temple Stakes at Haydock last week.

Meditate, out with the washing in the 1000 Guineas, came forward by 23 to chase home Tahiyra in the Irish equivalent at the Curragh.

It’s a finger in the air calculation at the moment but Auguste Rodin must have improved nearly the combined total of those two on Saturday.

Newmarket was indeed a non-event – Epsom glorious redemption.

A son of Deep Impact out of an Oaks runner-up in Rhododendron he opens up tantalising opportunities for breeders Coolmore – not that they’ve exactly been short of those in recent years.

New era dawns at Coolmore

But we’re entering a new era, the last progeny of Galileo set foot on a racecourse next year. The hunt for a successor is on – and let’s be fair as far as successions go you’d rather be a Roy sibling than a son of Galileo trying to follow in dad’s footsteps.

But that’s for the future. On Saturday it was time to celebrate the trainer.

The man who masterminded the careers of Rock Of Gibraltar, Giant’s Causeway, Yeats, Rip Van Winkle, Galileo, Istabraq and countless others.

There is a case of being in the right place at the right time. He has of course been in charge of the training arm of a breeding operation enjoying an unparalleled era of domination in Britain and Ireland.

But how many mistakes has he made? How many horses haven’t fulfilled their potential? How many what ifs has he left hanging in the air?

Bold when he needs to be, generous with his time but prone to hyperbole? One eye on the Coolmore stallion brochure quotes? Perhaps – but absolutely deadly with a good horse and with a remarkable ability to eke out improvement long after it could have been naturally expected.

“He always felt like he was the most special horse we had at Ballydoyle and that’s what we always felt,” O’Brien enthused afterwards

“From the very start, when John [Magnier] and Sue and everyone decided to send Rhododendron to Japan - a maiden mare, to send all the way to Japan to be covered by Deep Impact - it was an unbelievable call.

Special colt from day one

"And then when she was scanned in-foal with a colt, and then all the hype of expectations were there straightaway from before he was born. He was measured, measured, measured all the way, and he was ticking the top of the measurements all the way.

“It’s difficult for a person or a horse to handle all that, and he did, all the way through before he came to Ballydoyle. And then he came to Ballydoyle and I remember Ryan [Moore] sitting on him in the February as a two-year-old, and saying, ‘This is very special’.

“And then the bar is even higher. He did a lovely run first time and won his next three, and then he was put away and the plan was for the Guineas. Two days before the Guineas - we always felt the Guineas was going to be his toughest assignment, but when that happens everything has to fall right for you, the things that you can’t control have to fall in place for you.

"Two days before the Guineas they started falling the other way, where his flight was cancelled and he had to go over the day before and stay instead of in the morning, and then the ground and all the circumstances just fell against him that we couldn’t control, so really we just felt it was a non-event.

“Then I suppose when we said that it hyped even more pressure on the horse and everyone around him that was looking after him. Obviously we had to keep the faith, but it was down to the acid test here today, and really coming here today - so many of these things, they don’t happen.

“We felt he was the most special horse we’ve ever had because he was out of one of the best Galileo mares by the best Japanese stallion, and he has the movement - he doesn’t look like a big horse, but when you stand into him he is a big horse, so that’s usually a sign of something different.”

And this truly felt a different Derby winner for O’Brien. Bred in Japan, rebuilt in Ireland and dominant in England.

As far as this trainer goes nothing seems impossible. Not now.

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