SAXY BEAST
Warrior wins 2000 Guineas – and record-breaker O’brien Jnr admits: “He’s monster horse”
SAXON WARRIOR put O’brien & Son back in the Classic business with a scorching victory in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
The unbeaten colt’s victory was a 30th in the Classic sphere for master trainer Aidan O’brien – 20 years after King Of Kings’ triumph in the same race – with four coming in union with son Joseph.
Weight forced Joseph’s retirement from the saddle in the spring of 2016, but younger brother Donnacha followed in the family tradition as 3-1 shot Saxon Warrior sprinted to the line to capture the Qipcosponsored prize by a lengthand-a-half from 50-1 outsider Tip To Win, with Godolphin’s 5-2 favourite Masar a head away in third.
O’brien Snr, landing the 2000 Guineas for a record ninth time, was in America to oversee the Ryan Moorepartnered Mendelssohn’s challenge for last night’s Kentucky Derby.
But the winning rider handed the mount when Seamie Heffernan chose antepost market leader and sixth home Gustav Klimt – said of Saxon Warrior: “He travelled beautiful and I thought he was the winner the whole way.
“I’ve ridden him in all his work. He looked special all through the winter, and we’ve made no secret of that.
“He’s an absolute monster of a horse, and he can improve.”
Like older sibling Joseph, Donnacha, 19, towers above his weighing-room colleagues and wages a daily battle with the scales. “I’m not going to be riding all my life – I knew that from the moment I started,” he conceded, “but at the minute it’s fine – I did 9st, no problem. I’ll get this season – and hopefully another two or three seasons after that.
“But I’m taking it day by day. I’ll wake up some morning, and I’ll be too heavy – but I’ll keep making the most of it while I can.”
On the back of a perfect three-race juvenile campaign, Saxon Warrior – a son of Japanese superstar Deep Impact – went into his winter quarters as the 7-2 favourite for the Investec Derby on June 2. Those odds have now been slashed to evens, and part-owner Michael Tabor said: “Obviously, a mile is not his ideal trip, but when a horse has got the speed and class of Saxon Warrior we were always hopeful that a mile would be fine, which it proved to be.
“It’s a few weeks to the Derby – you can never count your chickens – but if we arrive there, all things being equal, he would have a strong favourite’s chance.”