Ben Linfoot wonders whether Aidan O\u2019Brien can work miracles with The Lion In Winter, just like Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy before him.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been here before.<\/p>\n
Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s ante-post Betfred Derby favourite has flopped on his reappearance. Just like Auguste Rodin in 2023 and City Of Troy in 2024. Those two bounced back from finishing 12th and 9th, respectively, in the 2000 Guineas to win at Epsom. They were beaten 22 lengths and 17 lengths at Newmarket. <\/p>\n
To get them back to win the Derby within a month in back-to-back years was pretty staggering. And now O\u2019Brien could go for the hat-trick.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow far was he beaten?\u201d O\u2019Brien asks in the York parade ring after The Lion In Winter was only sixth home in the Group 2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n About four lengths.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout four lengths, there you go.”<\/p>\n You definitely get the sense it could happen again.<\/p>\n There is a difference this year. O\u2019Brien has rattled through the trials like a man possessed. He\u2019s won the Ballysax and Leopardstown Trial with new Derby favourite Delacroix. He won the Sandown Classic Trial with Swagman. He won the Chester Vase with Lambourn. He won the Dee Stakes with Mount Kilimanjaro. He won the Lingfield Derby Trial with Puppet Master. <\/p>\n He certainly doesn\u2019t need to run The Lion In Winter at Epsom to win the Derby. <\/p>\n But this horse has undoubtedly been his Derby number one all winter. The antepost markets will attest to that. And even after being beaten into sixth in the Dante, he\u2019s still the 6\/1 third favourite (from 11\/4) for Epsom.<\/p>\n You definitely get the sense it could happen again.<\/p>\n Ryan Moore is a man of few words, but he gave O\u2019Brien, Paul Smith and Michael Tabor the longest of debriefs. The lads listened intently and there were no long faces.<\/p>\n A hearty handshake from O\u2019Brien ends the discussion, but what did Ryan say?<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very happy,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cHe said he jumped out and he was a bit keen, a bit fresh, and when he got him back he said he did relax very well.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said he had to come out earlier than he wanted as they were coming around him, he said he probably got a little bit tired as it was his first run.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very positive. He said it couldn\u2019t be quick enough for him, that he rides like a horse with a lot of class, a lot of speed.<\/p>\n \u201cRyan was positive, which is always good.\u201d<\/p>\n With the jockey happy, what about the trainer?<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien was at pains to stress The Lion In Winter would come on significantly for his Dante run in the build-up. He spoke at length about his setback that ruled him out of the Dewhurst at two, the condition he was carrying that ruled him out of a Guineas tilt.<\/p>\n In that context, was this more or less what he expected?<\/p>\n \u201cHe did well to make it here, do you understand? We were that far behind and obviously he wouldn\u2019t have made any other trial other than here as we wouldn\u2019t have had the time.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just ready to come racing. And maybe that\u2019s why he was a bit fresh in the stalls, he wanted to go faster when he came out.<\/p>\n \u201cThis horse is going to make a lot of improvement from today. We knew that before we came here. Not just improve. A lot of improvement, do you know what I mean? And you can see why I was thinking that beforehand after seeing him run.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he jumped out and did everything right we might\u2019ve got away with it. But he jumped out and didn\u2019t do anything right. He was just keen and he wanted to go faster. Obviously it was only a trial, so it wasn\u2019t championship pace.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what happened, and when he over-raced a little bit and things didn\u2019t go for him he probably got tired, but then he stayed on again at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n You definitely get the sense it could happen again.<\/p>\n And the good thing about this year\u2019s Derby, with The Lion In Winter\u2019s preparation in mind, is that O\u2019Brien has 23 days between now and Epsom to get this son of Sea The Stars in perfect condition for his Classic tilt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a help,\u201d O\u2019Brien says. \u201cWhen we start working him again we\u2019ll see how he is. He could turn into a totally different horse, but obviously he couldn\u2019t go to Epsom without a run.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to come here. We\u2019ll just have to wait and see. <\/p>\n \u201cWe just have to decide now, do we go to Epsom, or does he go to the French Derby? The long and short of it is we\u2019ll see how he is in a week.”<\/p>\n O\u2019Brien doesn\u2019t need to run The Lion In Winter to win the Betfred Derby. He might not even go to Epsom with the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly an alternative option. But that\u2019s on June 1, a week before Epsom, and The Lion might need all the days he can get under his belt before his next assignment.<\/p>\n Yes.<\/p>\n You definitely get the sense it could happen again.<\/p>\n More from Sporting LifeSafer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a><\/strong> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a><\/strong> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Linfoot wonders whether Aidan O\u2019Brien can work miracles with The Lion In Winter, just like Auguste Rodin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-104800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114514526470096280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}