Reflections on a Morning at Ballydoyle

If horse racing is your thing and you value the Derby above all other races, then there can be no finer way to spend a Monday morning in May than at the place which has had more influence on the great race than any other.

Ballydoyle can be held up alongside any of the great sporting arenas such as Lord's, Murrayfield, Old Trafford, Fenway Park, the MCG. True, it's not where the competition actually takes place, but what happens on its fabled acres has long been of worldwide significance to the sport of racing.

It was once the fiefdom of Vincent 'MV' O'Brien, rightly revered as one of the greatest trainers the sport has ever seen in either code. In the month that his eventual successor Aidan O'Brien was born, Vincent sent Nijinsky over to Britain to win the Dewhurst Stakes after he had carried all before him in Ireland during his juvenile season. The best was yet to come, of course, and in 1970, the Triple Crown, not to mention the Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, went the way of the great Nijinsky.

Only one horse has come close to winning the Triple Crown in the intervening 55 years, and it is no surprise that Camelot, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and Irish Derby in 2012, was trained at Ballydoyle by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by his eldest son, Joseph. While some of us have still not got over Camelot's three-quarter-length defeat by Encke in the St Leger, and perhaps never will, things have galloped on at Ballydoyle.

The essence of Epsom remains somehow woven into its Tipperary turf. Vincent O'Brien, the trainer of six Derby winners over 20 years from Larkspur to Golden Fleece, had a replica of Tattenham Corner constructed on the Ballydoyle gallops, and it remains an invaluable asset. 

Camelot was Aidan O'Brien's third Derby winner and his first in a decade after Galileo and High Chaparral had gone back to back in 2001 and 2002. Twenty-five years on from that first Derby victory, a stunningly taxidermied Galileo now stands in the museum at Coolmore Stud facing his equally great sire, Sadler's Wells.

Camelot opened the floodgates, with Ruler Of The World following him the next year, then Australia (2014), Wings Of Eagles (2017), Anthony Van Dyck (2019), Serpentine (2020), Auguste Rodin (2023), City Of Troy (2024) and Lambourn completing the set as its stands last year.

When Galileo won the Derby, he was his trainer's sole runner. High Chaparral led home runner-up and stable-mate Hawk Wing when O'Brien fielded three runners, while in Camelot's year, he had both the winner and the third, Astrology. Things have cranked up a notch since then, and O'Brien has run 50 horses in the Derby in the last 13 years. In 2017, he saddled six runners, followed by seven – more than half the field – in 2019. In each of the last three years, a trio has been sent for what the trainer described on Monday morning as “the ultimate test”.

We are perhaps falling into the trap of being drawn into a recency bias towards Chester after last year's Vase and Cheshire Oaks winners, Lambourn and Minnie Hauk, went on to glory at Epsom. But looking back over last week's meeting it is hard not to be extremely taken with this year's Chester Vase winner Benvenuto Cellini (Frankel) and the Dee Stakes winner Constìtution River (Wootton Bassett). Whether they meet at Epsom is doubtless the subject currently up for lengthy discussion between 'the lads' and their trainer, but while O'Brien was quick to reiterate that nothing was “written in stone” it was clear from his comments on the gallops that Benvenuto Cellini, Pierre Bonnard (Camelot) and Thursday's Dante Stakes runner, the Ballysax winner Christmas Day (Camelot), are currently the favoured trio for this year's Betfred Derby. He did contend, however, that if Constìtution River runs at Epsom, Ryan Moore would likely find it hard to give up the ride on that colt after his perfect rail-skimming performance around the speedway track that is Chester.

Christmas Day | Megan Ridwell/The Jockey Club

“I would say that the chestnut horse [Benvenuto Cellini], you'd be a little bit more sure he might get a mile and a half, but that doesn't say that the other horse [Constìtution River] wouldn't,” O'Brien said. 

This column is unlikely to be used in evidence for or against Constìtution River going to Epsom, but on both his performance at Chester and on his pedigree, he should get the Derby trip. Admittedly, his sire Wootton Bassett was a shorter runner, but he has long since proved to have range as a sire – including through Derby runner-up King Of Steel and last year's Oaks near miss Whirl – and that can only have been enhanced in his later years by covering a larger number of more middle-distance-bred mares. Constìtution River's dam Chuppy is by Le Havre, who also had scope as a sire. Though she didn't trouble the judge herself in two starts, Chuppy is a full-sister to Wonderful Tonight, whose two Group 1 wins came over 1m4f and 1m6f, doubtless helped by the presence of Montjeu as her broodmare sire. Constìtution River will get the mile and a half, but the commercial considerations of swooping as many Classic titles as possible with the next stallion intake to consider, not to mention the strength in depth of three-year-old colts in his own stable, may well see him bound for Chantilly and the Prix du Jockey Club.

Benvenuto Cellini is rightly regarded as an Epsom good thing at the moment. The only problem his trainer looks likely to have with him is in remembering his name, and who can blame him? Plenty of trainers will remember a horse by how they first thought of them on coming in to the stable: that little Sir Percy colt, or the big Golden Horn. Ballydoyle is of course awash with the offspring of elite sires so it's no good simply to say “that Frankel colt”. Before they are named, each horse at Ballydoyle bears a saddle cloth or exercise blanket with their sire's initials and their dam's name. More than once when questioned about a horse on Monday, O'Brien was momentarily blank and asked “What was he out of?” It may take a while for names to lodge, but here pedigree is king. 

The real Benvenuto Cellini was, like Auguste Rodin, a sculptor of repute. The similarities don't end there when it comes to their equine namesakes. One may be bright chestnut and the other dark brown but what they have in common is an eye-catchingly floating action. To watch Benvenuto Cellini stretch along the gallop is simply a pleasure, and the last horse who made a similar impression was Auguste Rodin as he winged around the home turn of Santa Anita 48 hours ahead of his Breeders' Cup Turf victory. Neither horse is of the physically imposing variety, but they share an athletic build that looks tailor-made for taking on trickier tracks, as indeed has already been proved by Auguste Rodin. 

There is no course trickier than Epsom, and for O'Brien there is at the moment no name trickier than that of his Derby favourite, who, at various stages of the morning, is referred to as “The chestnut horse”, “Watchamacallhim”, “The Vase winner”, “Ben-what's-his-name-again” and, simply, “Benny”. If he's good enough, which Benvenuto Cellini certainly appears to be, then we'll all remember his name eventually. 

Pierre Bonnard, the erstwhile Derby favourite following his twin triumphs at the end of last season, was quietly picking grass while all this was going on. He was walked out in hand on Monday morning following the exertions of his run in the Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial run at Leopardstown the previous afternoon, in which he was narrowly beaten by James J Braddock (Zarak). There will be those who will have turned against the son of Camelot following his two winless trial runs this season, but his trainer hasn't. The Derby is still very much on the agenda for Pierre Bonnard, and he may well end up being a St Leger candidate later this year.

“The pace was probably too slow for him, but he still ran very well. So I would think that he will step up big time, next time, going a mile and a half,” O'Brien said. 

Jan Brueghel will bid for a second Coronation Cup | Emma Berry

The last two St Leger winners, Jan Brueghel (Galileo) and Scandinavia (Justify) were out during second lot and both have made winning returns to action this year, in the Ormonde Stakes and the Vintage Crop Stakes respectively. Jan Brueghel was the last horse to beat Calandagan when the pair met last year in the Coronation Cup. A rematch is on the cards in the Coolmore-sponsored £1-million version this year. For Calandagan, everything has gone swimmingly since Epsom, but not so for Jan Brueghel, who is apparently lucky still to be with us after choking on some hay and contracting pneumonia last year, which accounts for his absence between his fourth-place finish in the King George and his return at Chester last week. He's a beautiful mover who may yet deliver his late sire a few more Group 1 triumphs.

It is overwhelming to watch the horses in action at Ballydoyle. During the first two of four lots, 54 horses appeared each time, including many household names, if you happen to live in a racing household. If only the morning could have been recorded on film and then played back, slowing down the tape for each horse just to be able to take it all in. 

For all the highfliers that we already know a bit about, what about that handful of two-year-olds we saw at the back of second lot? What might they become? How about those horses not going to Epsom but who are being primed for the Irish Guineas or Royal Ascot?

(In brief, it's the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace for Gstaad, True Love heads to the Irish 1000 Guineas, Diamond Necklace to the Diane, Minnie Hauk to the Tattersalls Gold Cup, and Albert Einstein to the Sandy Lane then the Commonwealth Cup in which he may meet Charles Darwin.)

Really we could spend the whole day there asking endless questions of O'Brien, whose patience would surely falter eventually. He does however seem to enjoy a bit of banter with the Fourth Estate on what has become an annual outing ahead of the Derby and follows at least two other press visits to Ballydoyle already this spring. Over breakfast, his wife Annemarie reminds him that the ITV cameras are also paying them a visit soon. 

It is welcomed for the media to be given this much behind-the-scenes access to what is effectively the world's best training establishment. Of course, O'Brien has a huge team behind him to ensure the daily work is done, not to mention the training experience of Annemarie and the wizardry of her Equimetrics data system alongside him, but he and the crew at Ballydoyle and Coolmore are unstintingly generous with their time.

Much as Juddmonte intuitively understood that the superstar Frankel could not remain hidden away once he retired to stud and have continued to allow visits beyond just those of breeders to Banstead Manor Stud, so does Coolmore accept the responsibility that comes with its status. It could easily keep these horses under wraps until they appear at the races, working under the mystique that the closed doors of horse racing has long engendered. Instead, the operation, which is not merely a heavyweight brand in racing but also in Ireland generally, has embraced the interest from outsiders.

On the gallops at Ballydoyle | Emma Berry

Of course neither Ballydoyle nor the nearby Coolmore Stud can operate on an open-all-hours basis for visitors. There is important work to be done in the racing yards and on the farms, particularly at this time of year. 

But a visit which includes the team from Betfred, sponsor of all five British Classics, and underlines just what the Derby means to the largest racing operation in the world can only be positive PR for the sport. Similarly, showing a gaggle of press some Derby prospects in the making and then taking them to revisit some of those who have gone before – Camelot, Australia, Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy – exhibits what Coolmore is in the round: from paddocks to racing stables to stallion yards. A glimpse behind its gates is truly absorbing.