O’Brien in a Winter wonderland

CLEVER ante-post punters basked in a rosy Winter glow at Newmarket yesterday after Wayne Lordan’s Qipco 1,000 Guineas swoop for allconquering Aidan O’Brien.

And a deep, wintry chill hits British trainers as record-breaking champion Irish trainer O’Brien continues to mop up everything with a Classic connection.

Winter, who joined O’Brien from retired Coolmore handler David Wachman, was backed at all rates from 33-1 last week after her promising reappearance behind Hydrangea at Leopardstown.

She went off at 9-1 and gave jockey Wayne Lordan the biggest win of his career.

It was Ryan Moore’s mount Rhododendron, the 5-4 favourite, who attracted yesterday’s big money, but she was frozen out when badly hampered with two furlongs to run – the point at which Winter, on the wide outside, took her grip.

Rhododendron did stay on well to snatch second for an O’Brien one-two but was still two lengths down at the line.

O’Brien plundered an unprecedented haul of British prize-money last year and looks set to do even better. “We’re lucky to have such wonderfully-bred horses for the team,” he insisted. “Everybody does their best and they take pride in what they do.

“David told us she was going to be a Classic filly.”

As for Rhododendron, he said: “Horses don’t always get clear runs, but we always thought she would get much further than a mile.

“She came home well and you’d have to be delighted with her first run of the year.”

This was his fourth 1,000 victory following Saturday’s eighth 2,000 win with Churchill.

And O’Brien even grabbed the first three places in yesterday’s Derrinstown Derby Trial at Leopardstown, where outsider Douglas Macarthur prevailed in a three-way photo.

And the O’Brien-trained Somehow blitzed home under Moore in the Dahlia Stakes to earn a crack at Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes on May 20.

Winter is now 6-4 with Paddy Power to land the Irish Guineas, while stoutly-bred Rhododendron is 5-2 for the Investec Oaks.