Aidan O'Brien: Read the latest on his Classic contenders and other star performers

Big races are going to come thick and fast when racing hopefully resumes at the start of next week.

Usual patterns have been disrupted and as a consequence Group One opportunities will be available at almost every turn, especially in the first month of a truncated campaign.

The methodical Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore collective are well versed in putting together the jigsaw in any typical year, but this summer will bring many new challenges, not least because of logistical obstacles and new protocols that will also need to be overcome.

O’Brien gave a glimpse of how he is tackling the puzzles when agreeing to speak to members of the media by Zoom on Thursday afternoon in a press conference organised by Qipco British Champions Series ahead of the first scheduled Classics of the year, the Qipco 2000 Guineas and Qipco 1000 Guineas, at Newmarket next weekend.

The master of Ballydoyle revealed that, as things stand, he will not be at Headquarters, when he will attempt to land a fourth successive 2000 Guineas and eleventh in total, and that members of his staff will stay in a rented or leased house in Newmarket for the three-day meeting.

He suggested horses running at the Qipco Guineas Festival would be more likely to become Royal Ascot candidates than those running in the Irish Guineas the following weekend. In turn, the horses staying in Ireland would be more prospective French Classic candidates than those who travel to England.

“Everything has been slow motion and the targets have been moving a little bit,” O’Brien said. “We won’t really know where we are until the horses get going. The horses have been ticking over, but obviously every time you think you had a target and put a sight on it, the next thing the target moves and you have to change again, so it’s a little bit tricky and horses do feel that.

“It’s unusual and strange, but all we can do is do our best and see where they all land. Everything seems good at the moment and everyone seems happy, but we won’t really know until we get going where the horses are and we’ll get a better picture.”

He added: “Those going to run at Ascot would probably have to run in your Guineas. We could run three or four. It’s not straightforward this year.”

What of the Investec Derby? The premier Classic of the year is set to take place at Epsom on July 4 but racing in Ireland will not return until June 8, and the traditional trials in Britain will be off-limits to Ballydoyle horses unless rules change.

O’Brien will have a small window to aim at in terms of prep races and as a result his team at Epsom could well include some very unexposed candidates.

Magical, his star filly of last year, is back in training, plus he had updates on such as Anthony Van Dyck, Kew Gardens, Japan and Sovereign. Read what he had to say about them all below:

Race: Investec Coronation Cup on June 5 (now the first contest in this year’s Qipco British Champions Series)

Those are the three we are thinking of entering. It’s very possible, one, two or three of those would run. I don’t know much about the mile and a half at Newmarket but I would imagine you would need to get the mile and a half very well to get the trip. Everyone else would know more than that we would, we’ve not had many runners over that trip at Newmarket.

Soft ground at Ascot [in the King George] wasn’t the right thing to do with [Derby winner] Anthony Van Dyck and he paid for it. The plan would be to keep him on good ground and he’s doing everything right at the moment.

Race: Qipco 2000 Guineas on June 6

Arizona’s been the horse on everyone’s mind all along and everyone is happy with him. He’s in good form and everything has gone well with him. He’s a big, rangy, scopey horse who we always thought would improve from two to three.

He’s by No Nay Never, who is an influence for speed, but he was always coming home well in his races last year and we always through a mile was going to be well within his grasp. I’m not sure how much further he will get.

I suppose sometimes you would run a horse over that trip, looking at them with one eye open and thinking that they would not get the trip, but we always thought this horse would stay a mile. He’s straightforward, usually a good traveller who likes nice ground. He travelled plenty last year and got plenty of experience, with a view to this year and him knowing what he has to do when he turns up on the big days. It’s hard to compare horses [with regard to his previous ten Guineas winners trained by O’Brien] but we are happy.

Wichita won his Group race in Newmarket and then ran very well in the Dewhurst. You would be well happy with both of them. They haven’t worked together.

Royal Dornock won the Royal Lodge [from Kameko] and is a very legitimate horse. Royal Lytham won a Group Two but never went further than six. We always thought he would stay further.

We are going to learn a lot with these horses when they start and then we will have an idea of which sort of race they should run in at Ascot, whether it be the St James’s Palace, Jersey or Commonwealth Cup. Everybody learns together. We don’t overface them at home.

Race: Qipco 1000 Guineas on June 7

We’ve always liked Love. She’s a very straightforward. She ran in [the Fillies’ Mile at] Newmarket with the view that she might come back for the Guineas. She ran very well and we were very happy with the run, and she will stay further.

Peaceful won a maiden in Thurles and was then second in a Listed race at Newmarket at the backend in soft ground. She’s a possible, as is So Wonderful. If we are looking for a Coronation Stakes filly, they are going to have to run.

Race: Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas on June 13

Armory would be a strong possible for the Irish Guineas. Fort Myers might well wait for it.

Vatican City is a brother to Gleneagles and we are very happy with him. He’s doing everything right. He’s a little bit heavy still but is a possible to start off in the Irish Guineas. He won nicely at Dundalk at the backend and is a nice horse to look forward to.

He’s had a little setback this week and might be on the quiet list for a few days.

Race: Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on June 18

If he’s going to Ascot [for the Gold Cup], he will go there without a run. He was ready to run in Dubai [in March] and then we were hoping to get a run into him at Leopardstown or Naas. It’s all been a little bit of a mess for him.

We had him wound-up very early this year to go to Dubai and then the plan was to give him a little rest and then come back for Ascot. But we’ve probably messed him around a little bit and he went a little bit quiet on us. He is slowly coming back and we are hoping to get him to Ascot. Then we will see where we go after that.

Race: Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 17

We are thinking of the Prince of Wales at the moment.

Race: Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot or Pretty Polly at the Curragh

She’s back in training. We were lucky that that the lads decided they would leave her for the year [in terms of being covered by a stallion]. She’s done very well physically and obviously No Nay Never [who had been pencilled in to cover her] is very busy. She wasn’t covered and didn’t go anywhere. I think she might be entered in the Prince of Wales but it’s possible she might not start until the Pretty Polly.

Race: Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot

We are not convinced how far he will stay. We think he could be a Jersey horse and if he’s going to go to Ascot it might be getting a little close running him in the Irish Guineas. The picture’s not really clear with what we are going to run in the Guineas with the two big horses [Arizona and Wichita] at the moment. We’ve got to be careful. The other option is to go for the Jersey without giving him a run, but then we are going to find it hard to see if he can stay a mile.

He’s back in training, cantering and has done four bits of work. We are just trying to go gentle. He might have a run in the middle of the summer somewhere but we are aiming for an autumn campaign.

Race: Investec Derby on July 4

We are thinking of going to the Derrinstown with Mogul but obviously all these things can change. There’s other maidens who would have usually been out by this stage, so we will start as many as them as we can in the first week. It’s going to be different.

We can’t go to you [England] for trials and probably going to be limited with trials here because after the first week it’s going to be close [to Epsom]. A lot of stuff is going to be up in the air. It wouldn’t be a surprise if we had very unexposed horses running in the Derby, along with the more exposed ones.