Moore will find it hard to desert Stone Age in Derby, says O'Brien

When you are dealing with the sudden absence of the long-time Cazoo Derby favourite, it helps when you've another half a dozen or so able to stand in and take his place.

Aidan O'Brien was saguine at a somewhat chilly Ballydoyle on Monday morning, welcoming journalists from home and abroad to promote next month’s Group One Cazoo-sponsored Classics at Epsom. He helped to clarify the pecking order among his Derby-bound colts, without any suggestion he has all the answers as to which might win.

But he was pretty clear on one thing: his best horse is not going to Epsom. Luxembourg was ruled out on Sunday after a setback following his fine third in the 2000 Guineas - a run that had him as short as 7-4 for Epsom. But the injury, which will keep the Camelot colt from seeing the track any time soon, he dealt with in a manner befitting someone who has seen it all.

"Luxembourg is very classy. What he did in the Guineas, he shouldn't have been able to do,” he told a huddle of hacks as rain threatened in County Tipperary. “For a horse bred to be a ten-to-12-furlong horse, he ended up totally out the back in the Guineas and he still kept coming. For him to do that, it was a very serious run for a middle-distance horse."

A muscular issue will keep him sidelined during the summer but O'Brien brushed it all off as just one of those things that ultimately is neither here, nor there. His regular jockey, Ryan Moore, who has had to contend with the health problems his brother Josh is battling, and O'Brien know horses will come and horses will go.

How did he grapple with the absence of the one-time Derby favourite? "It's only stuff," he quipped. "Stuff doesn't matter. Only a few things matter. I am disappointed for the lads. We've done our best, it happened.

"Yesterday morning, the lads said he wants a month or six weeks in the box. It is only a waste of energy thinking about it.

"He is a very good horse. I don't think Ryan would have had a choice to make (if he were fit). He probably has more scope than St Nicholas Abbey had; he ran in the Guineas as well but he didn't run as well as this lad. In the Guineas, we didn't really see what he was able to do."

The striking neon displays of the speed clocked by each horse on the gallops had many of us talking. The master of ceremonies informed that he was advised to do it by his sons, Donnacha and Joseph, whose own successes give him immense pride. He said: "I can learn a lot from them. There is no substitute for a young mind. That is what I love."

O'Brien reckons he's seen some steeds clock 53kph - "not bad on slow ground going uphill" - but gives the impression his Derby team, who could comprise six runners, are not among them.

Happily, he's been dominating the trials. Changingoftheguard looks the one for many after a Chester victory that preceded another by the gutsy Star Of India - only for Stone Age to emerge as the new favourite at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Then there are Dante possibles Point Lonsdale and Bluegrass to consider, plus Lingfield winner United Nations.

According to O'Brien, it's highly likely Moore will stay loyal to Stone Age. "I think he would find it hard to not ride the horse from yesterday," O'Brien said, repeating a theme in that it is hard to remember the names of all these sons of the late Galileo.

"We know the way they will be ridden if they run. Changingoftheguard will go forward, the horse that won the ten-furlong race in Chester (Star Of India) will go forward but he is a little lazy; the Lingfield winner (United Nations) will go forward and seemed to stay well. I imagine Ryan will find it hard not to ride (Star Of India).

"Leopardstown is a big, open, galloping track. At Chester, the horses are turning - a different test. It'd be hard not to be impressed with Stone Age. You'd like to have something to have led him. There was no point in messing him about. Ryan let him bowl along.

"He has a lot of experience from two. He was happy to get a lead at two and he’d have learnt a lot. We were running him and teaching him. He learnt a lot in those races."

It was pointed out both that Changingoftheguard and Stone Age failed to win as jueveniles but then again they're by Galileo. It was not necessarily expected. The issue of Galileo no longer being around he was apt to downplay.

"It was no worries they did not win at two. We could have made them win at two if we wanted but we always treat two as an education for three,” he said. “Stone Age even ran over seven. He had Group form at two, to expose to breeders he was a very good two-year-old.

"We have a lot of Dubawis, Galileo mares, loads of horses; it will be interesting. What more can you say about Galileo? You see yesterday in the trials, the horses' heads down. As you push them, they get lower.

"Star Of India nearly starts crawling close to the ground. He won't stop. Most horses come up, they don't, they go down on their knees for you, it's very unusual."

One O’Brien three-year-old who did not quite live up to expectations first time out is Point Lonsdale, but he still remains in the Derby frame despite finishing down the field in the Guineas.

“We always thought last year that he wanted to go a mile but we never went a mile, because we were keeping him at seven because he was the best horse we had at that distance at the time. Looking at him though, you’d always say that he was going to be a middle distance horse this year,” O’Brien said.

“He’s a very good horse and I’d expect him to step forward a lot from the Guineas and we’re giving him the time to help him do that, rather than rushing him back into the Dante – there’d be no reason for doing that. Obviously we thought he’d run a bit better than he did at Newmarket and he was a bit disappointing, but he’s still very much in our Derby plans.”

O’Brien says no matter how many horses he sends to Epsom Downs, none of them will be making up the numbers.

“Every single horse will go there with a plan to win and that’s the way it is with all of those horses," he said. "We do what suits that horse and it suits some to be ridden forward, some in the middle and some at the back. Every jockey goes there with the belief that they can win the race and that’s the way it has to be. I’d discuss things in front of them so they all know what everyone’s instructions are and nobody interferes with everyone else.

“We treat every horse that comes here like the best horse we’ve got and there’s only so many trials, so we run what we think are the best horses for each trials. The trials are usually on tracks that would be good trial runs for the Derby and I think historically that’s what they’ve been."

He added: “I always think with the people that have gone before us, there was always a lot of thought and a lot of reasoning put into where races are run. If the horse works on that track and it looks like they’ll get the trip – and the ground is another factor – I think you have to seriously give it proper consideration. The main think we try to avoid is having a slow run race, which keeps you guessing as to whether they’re going to get the trip or not as it’s a bit false. That’s why we went forward with our horses, to see.

“It gives them an education for Epsom and that’s why Derby winners can come out of anywhere. Obviously some of those races have better records than others, but maybe that’s because the best horses that year have gone there.

“When the trials are coming they’re all on different days, so all the horses are on different work programmes and they don’t get to work together. It’s usually only when they’re all put together that we learn (who is the best) and then that’s fact."

Mother Earth will run in the Al Shaqab Lockinge [on Saturday] and then she could go to Royal Ascot. Kyprios will run in the Saval Beg at Leopardstown on Friday and he will be aimed at the Gold Cup after that. I'd say he's a fair horse.

We are going to aim The Acropolis for the 2000 Guineas and Toy will run in the 1000 Guineas. We thought the world of The Acropolis last year but I couldn't get him to do anything. We were delighted by his return when he ran home well to finish second in the 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown. I don't think we'll over-race him this year - maybe we over-raced him a little last year -so it will be interesting to see what he does at the weekend. He's a horse with plenty of speed, so he shouldn't have any problem around Longchamp. Toy is from a fantastic family. It looks like she will get the mile quite well and I think she could be even better over ten furlongs. She might develop into a Diane filly after the French Guineas. We raced her over seven furlongs, and from a bad draw, purposefully at Cork, with a view towards the French Guineas, and I thought she did it well. It will be interesting to see how she gets on. I'm not sure if she'd get a mile and a half. I think she'll get ten furlongs alright.”

There are three sprint races this week and I think we will divide King Of Bavaria, Cadamosto and New York City up in each. If the ground looked like it was going to come up slow at Naas, we could look at running Cadamosto there and send the other two to England. I'd like Ryan to ride all of them. They are all in the mix for the Commonwealth Cup.