Joseph O’Brien: the inside track on my key players at Aintree

Fakir D’oudairies, Banbridge and Home By The Lee are all set to represent Joseph O’Brien at next week’s Grand National meeting at Aintree.

The JP McManus-owned Fakir D’oudairies will head to Merseyside fresh for his bid for a third successive victory in the Grade One Marsh Chase, having sidestepped last month’s Cheltenham Festival.

His stablemate Banbridge also missed the showpiece meeting in the Cotswolds after O’Brien took him out of the Turners’ Novices’ Chase due to the rain-softened ground at Prestbury Park.

That freshness could prove key as both are readied for another trip across the Irish Sea.

“Fakir has been good in Aintree the last few years. It looks like it will be a very good race this year, as you’d expect, but he’ll go there with a live chance again,” said O’Brien.

“We’ve learned that Banbridge is at his best on a sounder surface and it was very testing on the day at Cheltenham.

“We also have him entered at Fairyhouse, but I think Aintree is more likely to get better ground.”

Home By The Lee was in action at Cheltenham, lining up with strong claims in the Stayers’ Hurdle after previous wins this season at Navan and Leopardstown.

The eight-year-old passed the post in fifth after a jumping error cost him vital ground and momentum and he could renew rivalries with a few of those who finished ahead of him in the Grade One Liverpool Hurdle on Grand National day.

O’Brien added: “Home By The Lee made a very bad mistake in Cheltenham and was probably lucky not to fall or pull a muscle, but he’s fine after the race and he potentially will go to Aintree.”

Joseph O’Brien is planning to head straight to the Irish 2,000 Guineas with his Group One-winning colt Al Riffa.

Runner-up to Sunday’s Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial winner Hans Anderson on his debut at the Curragh last summer, Al Riffa went one better on his second start before securing a top-level victory in the National Stakes in September.

The Wootton Bassett colt is entered for the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 6 but is set to remain on home soil to contest the season’s first Irish Classic three weeks later.

“He’s obviously our flagship horse, he was a Group One-winning two-year-old and he’s the one we’re excited about,” O’Brien said at a press morning at his yard on Monday.

“The plan is to go straight to the Irish Guineas and at the moment what I’m thinking is we’ll then either go for another mile race or go 10 furlongs. I don’t think he’ll go into a Derby.

“It depends how the Guineas goes, but I don’t see him as a real stayer. He’s a horse that showed speed on the track and shows speed in his training.

“I don’t think I’ve had a higher rated two-year-old and he has the frame to go on. Physically he’d stack up with any of those top horses we’ve had.”

Another O’Brien inmate with Group One aspirations is Above The Curve, who struck at the top table in the Prix Saint-Alary last season and was beaten less than a length in the Prix de l’Opera on Arc day.

The four-year-old daughter of American Pharoah has options at home and abroad for her seasonal debut.

“She’s one of our top horses and has the option of running in the Prix Ganay or the Prix d’Ispahan and there’s also the Alleged Stakes at the Curragh and the Group Two in York (Middleton Stakes). She’ll start off in one of those and we’ll play it by ear, but she’s a Group One filly and very tough,” the trainer added.

“The Pretty Polly would be an obvious first half of the season target and you can look at international options as well. There’s a good mile-and-a-quarter fillies’ programme through the year.

“She should be at least as good this year.”

A new recruit O’Brien is looking forward to unleashing is Jumbly – a Group Three winner for Harry and Roger Charlton last season before changing hands for 1.25million guineas.

He said: “Her main target will be the mile fillies’ race at Royal Ascot (Duke of Cambridge Stakes) – that will be one of her early season targets.

“She looks good and tough and hasn’t done anything wrong all her career. She’s a little bit behind some of mine, so she won’t have her first run for another few weeks and will just have a prep run for Ascot.”

Among the three-year-olds O’Brien is hoping can make an impact this season is Listowel maiden winner Lark In The Mornin, who is set to reappear in a winners’ race at Cork before stepping up in class.

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