Pressure is a privilege.
Aidan O’Brien has a plethora of top-class middle-distance horses and now the mission is to successfully split them up accordingly to plunder as many top prizes across the world as possible.
This is becoming something of an annual event at Ballydoyle.
With the three-year-olds now tackling their elders, sometimes it can be a case of out with the old and in with the new.
Delacroix’s success in last week’s Eclipse was an indication of how useful the weight-for-age scale is at this time of the year.
The same applied when Whril grinded out Kalpana in the Pretty Polly Stakes.
Aidan O’Brien has plenty of big decisions to make ahead of the second half of the season
Delacroix (near side) won the Coral-Ecplise at Sandown and is one of O’Brien’s leading lights
Whirl (far side) also managed to beat a classy older horse when winning the Pretty Polly Stakes
Both winners were trained by O’Brien and he has an early handle in where the three-year-olds are at in relation to the older horses. Ten pounds is an almighty advantage, particularly when most form judges seemed to have the Classic generation well behind.
These victories were partially offset in the Falmouth Stakes when O’Brien three-year-old January was narrowly beaten by Godolphin’s Cinderella Dream.
January is not O’Brien’s best three-year-old filly miler. That honour surely goes to Irish Guineas winner Lake Victoria and she ought to do some serious damage in the second half of the season.
O’Brien’s high class three-year-old string, as well as the four that have been mentioned, include Derby and Irish Derby winner Lambourn, Oaks winner Minnie Hauk, French Guineas winner Henri Matisse and French Derby winner Camille Pissarro.
Others open to progress at this age boasting high-class group form would be Trinity College and Garden Of Eden, while it would be dangerous to entirely dismiss last year’s outstanding juvenile The Lion In Winter to find a suitable big race at the age of three.
Scandinavia and Serious Operator have also emerged as good three-year-olds in recent weeks.
It’s quite the three-year-old line-up and it looks daunting enough to split all of these horses up before considering where they slot in when taking on older horses.
O’Brien has plenty of good older horses, too, between a mile and a mile and six furlongs.
Lambourn (left) beat stablemate Serious Operator in an Irish Derby dominated by Ballydoyle
Jan Brueghel, Los Angeles and Illinois immediately spring to mind. This is the standard-setting trio that the three-year-old generation have to reach.
Illinois is more of a stayer these days but there’s little doubt he has the class to drop into the mile and a half division at the top level.
But he’s been seen as the heir to the Kyprios thrones at Ballydoyle and will likely be campaigned at two-miles or further.
Los Angeles and Jan Brueghel have a similar front-running style. The former is seen as more of a ten-furlong type, with Coronation Cup winner Jan Brueghel their main elder mile-and-a-half horse. Both are grinders that are tough to pass and can keep up a relentless pace throughout their races.
There are a lot of these qualities in Lambourn, who made all at Epsom and was always prominent at the Curragh.
A St Leger bid looks likely but he may have much more speed and class than given credit for. Could he be re-routed to the King George and Arc and be campaigned at the best mile-and-a-half races instead?
Oaks winner Minnie Hauk looks capable of staying the Leger trip as well, while the emergence of Scandinavia and the promising runner-up effort of Serious Operator in the Irish Derby mean that those two could be Leger horses, which would allow the Classic winners to compete against their elders earlier than usual where they’ll get various weight allowances.
Those are the types of dilemmas O’Brien faces. He’s like a football manager with a star-studded squad but how does he field his strongest first-team to get the best out of them all and compete on all fronts?
Delacroix looks a tailor-made horse that could clash with the likes of Los Angeles in races like the Irish Champion Stakes, perhaps taking in the Juddmonte International beforehand. Whirl is a hardy filly over a mile and a quarter and can also get a mile and a half. She is another that could go globetrotting.
It’s an exciting but decisive time in second-half-of-the-season planning and it will be fascinating to see how goes where.
More Thunder (far left) just got up in the line to win the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK…
There was the temptation for MORE THUNDER to take in the Group One July Cup at Newmarket’s July Course but they opted to exploit a mark of 98 in the Bunbury Cup.
It was a decision that was rewarded. Just. After Royal Ascot heartache in the Wokingham, More Thunder just got up in the line to reward favourite backers from 40-1 outsider Aalto.
That may not look impressive on face value but after being drawn on the wrong side, Tom Marquand pulled More Thunder all the way to the stands’ side and the slow pace was against him. He did incredibly well to pull it out of the fire and this four-year-old smacks of an enormous improver when upped in grade and facing a stronger pace.
SELECTION OF THE DAY…
The Grand Prix de Paris is the highlight of the evening at Paris Longchamp. Aidan O’Brien sends TRINITY COLLEGE (6/4, Paddy Power) over for an assignment he’s won three of the last seven renewals of. The Hampton Court Stakes winner at Royal Ascot was fourth in the French Derby.
He handles soft ground and looks ready for the step up in trip to a mile and half. He could be too classy for his French rivals at Longchamp (7.25). Victory here could set up a globetrotting trip that takes in races such as the American Derby.