Trainer Aidan O’Brien, interviewed over the phone from Ireland during yesterday’s Breakfast With The Stars at Epsom, said he “couldn’t be happier” with Saxon Warrior the current 8/11 favourite with Unibet for in the Investec Derby on Saturday, June 2.
Unbeaten in four starts, Saxon Warrior returned to action this year with a decisive success in the first British Classic of the season, the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 5, providing O’Brien with a ninth victory in the mile event and giving a first British Classic success to O’Brien’s jockey son Donnacha.
The three-year-old son of Deep Impact, the first British Classic winner for the Japanese-based stallion, had shown plenty of ability from the beginning.
There was a striking maiden victory on debut at the Curragh in August, 2017, with wins in both the G2 Beresford Stakes at Naas in September and the G1 Racing Post Trophy by over a mile at Doncaster at the back-end of last season.
O’Brien has won the Investec Derby on six occasions courtesy of Galileo (2001), High Chaparral (2002), Camelot (2012), Ruler Of The World (2013), Australia (2014), and Wings Of Eagles (2017) and would become the joint winning-most trainer in the race alongside Robert Robson, John Porter and Fred Darling, were he to win the Classic this year.
Britain and Ireland’s champion Flat trainer reported: “Saxon Warrior is in very good form at home and has come out of the 2000 Guineas very well. He is a good traveller and a very well balanced colt.
“We couldn’t be happier with him and he seems very well in himself.
“We always thought he was a very high-quality colt and he’s done everything right so far.
“He’s a very strong blend of Danehill, Galileo and Deep Impact. We haven’t had anything like him before. He’s exciting.
“We were always looking forward to stepping him up in distance. In the 2000 Guineas, he travelled like a miler and quickened like a miler, but we always thought he was going to be a middle distance horse – he is very good.”
Ryan Moore is set to ride Saxon Warrior. O’Brien could have up to six other Investec Derby runners, headed by Delano Roosevelt (16/1 with Unibet) and The Pentagon (20/1), who finished second and third respectively behind the Dermot Weld-trained Hazapour (14/1) in the G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown over 10 furlongs on May 13. Rostropovich (20/1), winner of the Listed Dee Stakes at Chester, Kew Gardens (25/1), a three and a quarter-length second to Harry Dunlop’s Knight To Behold (20/1) in the Betfred Lingfield Derby Trial at Lingfield Park on May 12, Zabriskie (50/1), third to Roaring Lion in Wednesday’s Betfred Dante Stakes, and Nelson (33/1), winner of the G3 Ballysax Stakes in April, complete the possible Ballydoyle team.