‘I’m happy with where we are’
AIDAN O’BRIEN is facing into one of the big racing weeks of the year at York this week and he is optimistic that the bug which swept through his Ballydoyle yard has been controlled and he can regain momentum in Britain.
O’Brien told The Racing Post: “It went through the whole yard. All the horses got it. We hadn’t leaned on any of the horses up until last weekend and we thought that if we got through last weekend we might be able to start leaning on them a little bit more.
“Problems can resurface when you go forcing them. You don’t want those problems to relapse. They seem to be back in good form and we’re really looking forward to our next big week, which is York. It’ll be interesting to see how they get on there, but I’m happy with where we are at the moment.”
It was always going to be tough for him to match last year’s world record-breaking tally of 28 Group 1 wins.
While his strike rate is very robust in Ireland, the yield from his raids on the big races and festivals in Britain is well down.
His eight Group 1s this season is six behind the same stage last season.
His strike-rate in Britain is down to 9 per cent from over 20 per cent the previous year and almost 25 per cent in 2016.
He has sent over 42 more runners this year than last but has had just 12 winners, and quite a few high-profile horses have failed to fire.
O’Brien’s strike-rate in Ireland has, by contrast, been operating at the highest level since 2013, his 80-winners from 314 runners is a 25.5 per cent strike-rate in the period from April to July. (Figures courtesy of the Racing Post).
The running of Gustav Klimpt in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes at Newbury on Saturday did not inspire confidence as he faded to finish fourth, nor did the runs of Land Force (4th) and Rhododendron (well back in the pack) in Group 1 races in Deauville on Sunday.
Liz Doyle had a rare runner on the all-weather at Dundalk on Friday evening and did well to get third with My Lark (40/1), behind Aidan O’ Brien’s Royal Navy Warship (3/1f), while Jim Bolger won the €50,000 feature with his wife’s Dawn Hoofer (4/1) under Kevin Manning.