1 day Ago By [email protected] (Jon Lees)
Aidan O’Brien has named his top candidates for this season’s Betfred British Classics. The Ballydoyle trainer has an abundance of talent within his stable from which to select the horses to target at the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St Leger. He has a record 45 wins in the five races and is lining up four horses to tackle the first two races in the schedule at Newmarket.
O’Brien revealed his likely line-up during a media morning at Ballydoyle on Monday, arranged by the Jockey Club and headline sponsor Betfred. He confirmed long-time ante-post favourite The Lion In Winter would miss the 2,000 Guineas to run in the Dante Stakes at York, leaving Twain and Expanded as his likely challengers. While Exactly and Lake Victoria are being prepared for the 1,000 Guineas.
Twain is 5-1 favourite with Betfred while Lake Victoria is 6-1 second favourite for the 1,000 Guineas behind Godolpin’s Desert Flower. “Twain is the Group 1 winner, so if the two are going well at the time we might let Expanded go to the Curragh on the Monday after because he’s not a Group 1 winner so he could start in the Irish Guineas Trial,” said the trainer. “It was probably impossible what we asked Twain to do last year.
He won his maiden then five or six days later we brought him back to France for a Group 1. “He never saw a horse in his maiden so he really went to France after only having a racecourse gallop. He was very green in France but still won very nicely.
“He is a Wootton Bassett from the Galileo pedigree so there is every chance he could get the Derby trip after the Guineas. He continued” “In the 1,000 Guineas, Exactly is after having a run so the plan will be to go there. Lake Victoria is on the way back.
“We just stepped her up a couple of weeks ago and she is really coming. She could be there in time and if she wasn’t she would go to the Curragh on the Monday as well. “It’s very possible that she could be there in time and if that happened Exactly could go to the French Guineas instead.
” O’Brien said at this stage The Lion In Winter was his number one horse for the Derby. He said: “The Lion In Winter is not going to the Guineas. He’s going to the Dante.
He will probably be 80 or 90 percent in the Dante, maybe 80 percent. If that goes well then we’ll see what the lads want to do. “The horse that won in Leopardstown, Delacroix, would go back for the Derrinstown Stakes and he could go there [to the Derby] and if Twain won the Guineas, there’s a good chance that the lads would want him to go to the Derby as well.
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