IT’S THREE AN’ EASY FOR O’BRIEN
Australia win makes it an Epsom Derby hat-trick for Ballydoyle maestro
INVESTEC Derby day was turned into Australia day as Aidan O’Brien’s colt lived up to his massive reputation with a dominant one-anda-quarter-length win in the biggest Flat race of the season.
The winner put on a show fit for the occasion when holding off the gallant Roger Varian-trained Kingston Hill. A further three-and-a-quarter lengths back in third was John Gosden’s Romsdal.
When, back in 2010, the mating was made between 2001 Derby winner Galileo and 2004 Oaks heroine Ouija Board, the dream was that the offspring would be good enough to line up in the 2014 Derby. The product, chestnut colt Australia, did much more than that.
Going into the race, O’Brien had claimed Australia was so good that it seemed the most important race of the Flat season was as good as over before it had begun.
The billing potentially set up Australia for a sobering fall from grace but he delivered the goods in emphatic style to provide O’Brien with a fifth win in the race and a record-equalling third in-a-row.
It was also a second win for his 21-year-old jockey son Joseph, who employed text-book tactics to ensure he steered clear of traffic problems in the 16-runner line-up.
O’Brien had fuelled expectations with tales of Australia’s breathtaking splits on the gallops. It was that acceleration three furlongs out that put this contest to bed yesterday, despite the efforts of Kingston Hill.
Joseph said: ‘I got there a bit sooner than I wanted. I’d have liked to have delayed my challenge a bit further but he was going so well.
‘As a two-year-old he was a bit babyish in his races and raced lazily but this year he has been a pushbutton ride.’
His father added: ‘The way he goes from A to B so easily make him unique. There is a lot of stamina in the pedigree, but everyone saw the speed here.
‘A long time ago we thought he was very special – we wanted to be here with him but you can never be sure. There are so many variables.’
One of those variables was the weather but while heavy storms did hit the track, they did not make any significant change to the going.
Another was that Australia, like virtually all of O’Brien’s string, was hit by a coughing bug in the spring. It disrupted his preparation for the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket last month in which he finished third.
That still looked the best piece of form going into the race and so it proved with Kingston Hill, the 2000 Guineas eighth, throwing down the biggest challenge for jockey Andrea Atzeni. If Joseph O’Brien deserves praise for his ride, so does Atzeni.
He was berthed in the tricky inside two stall but broke quickly to take up a position behind front-running Our Channel and Kingfisher.
Atzeni said: ‘Australia was travelling well and was always going to get me but my horse ran a great race. I can’t complain.’
Kieren Fallon attempted a similar move on True Story but his seventhplaced mount was never travelling with the same fluency.
Others to emerge with credit were Peter Chapple-Hyam’s Arod in fourth and Ed Dunlop’s outsider Red Galileo, who snatched fifth under 18-year-old apprentice sensation Oisin Murphy.
The biggest disappointment was Australia’s stablemate Geoffrey Chaucer, who tailed off last under Ryan Moore.
Racing is a business as well as a sport and the win of Australia also had commercial significance for Coolmore. One of his owners is Malaysian businessman Teo Ah King, a key player in the China Horse Club. It is a developing area of the world where the shrewd Coolmore team are building key links.
The Irish Derby is now an option for Australia but, because of his pace, it would be no surprise to see him drop back to 10 furlongs.
Races like the Coral Eclipse, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes could be on his agenda.