Triple Crown contender Luxembourg spearheads O’Brien squad

By his own exalted standards, six-time champion trainer Aidan O’Brien had a bit of a lean time in Britain last year. He chalked up only 11 winners, his lowest haul since 2014 when he managed the same tally from 38 fewer runners. In between those years, his annual number of winners had been 16, 28, 32, 24, 24 and 13.

There were still several highlights along the way, with five Group 1 QIPCO British Champions Series triumphs to celebrate. Mother Earth won the QIPCO 1000 Guineas; Love scooped the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes; and St Mark’s Basilica landed the Juddmonte International. Plus, of course, there was Snowfall’s astonishing 16-length victory in the Cazoo Oaks and her emphatic Darley Yorkshire Oaks success.

However, of those, only Mother Earth, placed in three other Series races after her Guineas triumph, will be back in action this year. She began the new campaign with a Group 3 win at the Curragh last month and is heading for the Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes at Newbury next month. The rest of O’Brien’s older brigade, such as Bolshoi Ballet, High Definition, Wembley, Broome, Wordsworth and Kyprios will have to raise their respective games if they are to make an impact in the biggest races.

Three-year-olds seems likely to hold the key for the Ballydoyle maestro this season

It looks like O’Brien is going to be heavily reliant on his three-year-olds and he has quality and quantity in that department. Spearheading his team will be Luxembourg, a general 5/1 for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and 4/1 favourite for the Cazoo Derby. For good measure, the Camelot colt is the early ante-post favourite for the Cazoo St Leger.

Could Luxembourg be a Triple Crown contender? Nijinsky was the last to achieve that in 1970 and the closest any horse has come to emulating him was the O’Brien-trained Camelot a decade ago. He won the Guineas and Derby before finishing second in the St Leger.

Like his Dad before him, Luxembourg signed off his two-year-old season by landing the Vertem Futurity Stakes at Doncaster. The stable’s last two winners of that Group 1 contest, Magna Grecia and Saxon Warrior, went on to Guineas glory and so all the portents are good for Luxembourg, even if middle distances seem sure to show him to best advantage.

O’Brien has another leading Classic contender in Point Lonsdale, who impressed in winning his first four starts before being unable to contain Native Trail in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh. Unraced beyond 7f, he seems certain to relish moving up in distance, a remark that is also applicable to Scriptwriter and United Nations.

Among the most intriguing of O’Brien’s three-year-old fillies are Tenebrism and Tuesday. The former put up a tremendous effort to win the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in late September, especially as that was her first run since winning on her debut at Naas six months earlier. With the QIPCO 1000 Guineas in mind, it is worth noting her dam was a dual Group 1 winner over a mile.

Tuesday is a sister of several winners, including seven-time Group 1 winner Minding, who won the 1000 Guineas and Oaks in 2017. Tuesday lost her maiden tag in taking style over a mile at Naas last month having been beaten a short head by Discoveries in a 7f maiden at the Curragh in late June. The winner went on to land the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

As ever, there are plenty of unraced three-year-olds at Ballydoyle who could quickly make up for lost time, including Waterville,  The Algarve and Only.

“Waterville could be a good bit better than a maiden. He’s a Derby-type horse and goes very well,” O’Brien said at a recent media event. “He’s a very big horse and will run in a maiden before long. The Algarve was ready to run but she got an infection in her hock. She’ll have an Oaks Trial and could be an Oaks filly. Only, the first foal out of Winter, a Deep Impact filly, she goes well, too.”

It was only nine years ago that Ruler Of The World, who never ran as a juvenile, won the Derby for the yard.