THIS

could be a hell of a week if your name is Aidan O’Brien. Should the Ballydoyle master manage to win the Derby and the French Derby in the space of two days you have to wonder what’s left for him to achieve, especially since Frank Lampard has just been appointed Derby manager.

French Derby success has remained elusive to O’Brien despite two decades of trying.

Any sort of success has eluded me in the last 20 years.

The only other major European Classics missing on O’Brien’s CV are the Prix Diane and the French Oaks, run later this month.

That’s the problem with being such a high-profile trainer.

It’s not as easy for him to lie on his CV as it is for me.

O’Brien’s best hope of beating his French Derby jinx at Chantilly tomorrow is Rostropovich.

The impressive Dee Stakes winner could have run in the Derby but instead makes up one quarter of O’Brien’s four-pronged assault on the French Classic.

I think he’ll go close.