By Brian Sheerin
Aidan O'Brien has put Constitution River's defeat in the Juddmonte International down to the fact the race was a “complete mess” tactically and backed his star colt to show his true colours in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday week.
The legendary trainer was speaking at an Irish Champions Festival open morning at Ballydoyle. As well as Constitution River, O'Brien is likely to throw big guns like Precise, True Love, Sun Goddess, Alpha and Scandinavia at Ireland's flagship Flat festival.
But Constitution River is very much the ace in the pack for the entire weekend and the Wootton Bassett colt will be bidding to join fellow O'Brien-trained stars like Giant's Causeway, High Chaparral and more recently St Mark's Basilica, Auguste Rodin and Delacroix on the Irish Champion Stakes roll of honour.
“It was just a bit of a mess the last day,” O'Brien said of Constitution River's third-placed effort behind Item at York.
“I have to ultimately accept the responsibility for it because I put in the pacemaker that wasn't good enough. We thought if he wouldn't go, the other horse [Devil's Advocate] of John's [Gosden, trainer, whose Ombudsman finished fourth] would go, but obviously they didn't have any intention of going.
“It just goes to show with one bad decision what can happen. Because of that, the whole race changed and Constitution River ended up a bit too forward because there wasn't enough pace in front of him and he was in a gear too high – it was all just a complete mess really.”
O'Brien added, “Constitution River is in good form, he seems to have come out of the race well. We always thought the world of this horse, his only blip was the last day and I would be very confident it wasn't his fault. We're hoping he'll leave that run behind him and we're very happy with him.
“We'd like to have something else that could make it for them so Hawk Mountain wouldn't have to be as forward. Hopefully we'll have something that might be able to go in there. We have horses that are not in it but we could have to supplement. Hopefully we won't make the same mistake twice.”
A brilliant winner of the Prix du Jockey Club as well as the Coral-Eclipse, Constitution River is as short as even money to put his Juddmonte International defeat behind him in the showpiece race of the Irish Champions Festival. Meanwhile, his York conqueror Item can be backed at odds as big as 7-2.
Meanwhile, Precise and True Love are on course to take each other on once again in the G1 Coolmore America “Justify” Matron Stakes.
True Love was too good for her stablemate when winning the 1,000 Guineas but Precise turned the tables when landing the Irish equivalent as well as the Coronation Stakes.
“That's the plan, we're thinking of running both in the Matron,” O'Brien confirmed. “Obviously we've tried to split them up and go different places with them. True Love ran well the last day over six and a half, but she's going to go back up to a mile again.
“Precise went a few different places and ran against the older horses and had a few tough assignments, but for the last two months we were trying not to be too hard on the horses so when the autumn came we could lean a little bit harder on them. Precise looks like she gets the mile stronger than True Love, but True Love has a lot of class, so it will be interesting and it will probably come down to where they're drawn and who gets the run of the race.”
Classy juvenile Alpha and Sun Goddess could also take each other on in the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes while ante-post Derby favourite Giant Sequoia and the highly-touted Haffner are penciled in for the G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes. Both races are at the Curragh on Sunday.
O'Brien said, “Sun Goddess seems to have come out of York very well. We probably learnt plenty about her – we learnt that she handles an ease in the ground and we learnt that there's every chance that she could get seven furlongs as well, so she could go to the Moyglare on the way to the Cheveley Park.
“We'll get a little bit closer to it before we decide, but she did her first bit of work back at the weekend and we were very happy with her, so there's every chance she could go without it being written in stone. Alpha has been trained for the Moyglare all the time, she's a massive, powerful filly and we were happy with her the last day. She ran a lovely race and because it was only a Group race on the way we didn't want to go all out with her. She gets the trip very well and the faster they go the better it will suit her.”
Sun Goddess: could take on Alpha in the Moyglare | Bronwen Healy
When asked which filly Ryan Moore would ride, O'Brien said, “Alpha will go hard and drag the living daylights out of everything, and with Sun Goddess you'd be wanting to see if she'll get the trip, so it's going to be a hard one. I suppose it will come down to whether the lads decide to let Sun Goddess run or not. It will be a hard call I think, but looking at Sun Goddess the last day it's going to be very hard to get off her.”
On Giant Sequoia and Haffner, he concluded, “Everything has gone really well for Giant Sequoia all the way along really. He wasn't as impressive as we thought he could be the last day, but with the benefit of hindsight it could be good for him because he probably learnt plenty,” said O'Brien.
“We were very happy with Haffner the last day and he seems to have come out of it well, so he could go there with Giant Sequoia. Ryan is going to find it very hard to get off Giant Sequoia, but I'd say Haffner is going to be a big danger and I know he loves him, so that isn't going to be an easy decision.”
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