ULTIMATE WARRIOR
Legend O’Brien hails Derby hope Saxon He’s high quality, exciting... and special
himself down. But, in the case of this powerfully-built colt, there is more to O’Brien’s words than simply being on-message to his bosses at the Coolmore Stud, where Saxon Warrior will retire, most likely at the end of this year. An unbeaten two-year-old, Saxon Warrior dashed to victory in Newmarket’s 2000 Guineas under O’Brien’s son Donnacha – and is now Ladbrokes’ 4-6 hotpot for the Investec-sponsored Classic at Epsom next Saturday. “We always thought of him as a high-quality colt,” says O’Brien, on the cusp of winning the race for the seventh time in 17 years. “He’s done everything right ROMANISED a wet came home with shock in to spring a 25-1 sail Guineas at the the Irish 2,000 winner, Shane Foley-ridden Curragh. The O’Brien trio of the Aidan who overhauled and Gustav Klimt US Navy Flag, in a Condon’s first was Ken Threeandfourpence, drought stretching ended a trainer. Classic – and the Co Kildare back to July for Condon. “We dreams,” said of “It’s the stuff a nice thinking he’d run were coming here for the King’s is on course race.” Battaash Ascot after a Stakes at Royal Stakes return in the Temple Park. at Haydock AIDAN O’BRIEN triggers a sense of deja vu with his views on Derby favourite Saxon Warrior. The legendary trainer admits: “We haven’t had anything like him before – he’s very different.” The 48-year-old, the curator of the historic Ballydoyle racing stables in Co Tipperary for more than two decades, has always stuck to the same plan. He talks up the horses. He talks so far. He travelled and quickened like a miler in the 2000 Guineas, but we always thought he was going to be a middle-distance horse.”
Not only must Saxon Warrior, a son of Japanese superstar Deep Impact and Maybe, prove his stamina over a mile-and-a-half.
He must also demonstrate the poise required to deal with Epsom’s iconic up-anddown horseshoe layout.
O’Brien (below) often talks of the luck that has propelled him from a 15-year-old school-leaver, at the wheel of a forklift in the Wexford Co-op, to the helm of the most potent thoroughbred stable in the world.
But nothing is left to chance at Ballydoyle, established as a giant by the late Dr Vincent O’Brien – no relation – who prepped his six Derby winners round a duplicate of Epsom.
“With Dr Vincent, everything was geared towards Epsom,” explains O’Brien. “Epsom, Epsom, Epsom. There is an Epsom gallop and Saxon Warrior has been around our Tattenham Corner at home 40 times.”
A great racehorse tutored at the Ballydoyle academy is not headline news, but a Derby triumph would move Saxon Warrior to within one race – the St Leger – of the storied Triple Crown, the Classic treble last achieved in 1970 by Dr Vincent’s Nijinsky.
The feat has so far escaped the yard’s current incumbent – Camelot won the Guineas and Derby in 2012, only to be thwarted at Doncaster by 25-1 shot Encke.
In a bloodstock world bewitched by speed, success in the final Classic – where lasting home the mile-andthree-quarter distance is the key – can be viewed as a negative in a potential stallion.
But O’Brien believes the Coolmore triumvirate of John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith will target Town Moor in September if all goes to plan next weekend.
“The lads have changed a lot since we came here,” says O’Brien, whose Delano Roosevelt, The Pentagon, Kew Gardens and Zabriskie are set to canter to the Derby start with Saxon Warrior.
“The commercial notion is not as important any more, and targeting the Triple Crown is something the lads have started to think about.
“We were always hopeful after Camelot that another horse would come along who could run in all three races.
“We are still alive and kicking after the first round, and we couldn’t be happier with Saxon Warrior.”