O’Brien keeping Derby options open

Aidan O’Brien is set to fire several bullets at this year’s Betfred but accepts that has emerged as his leading hope of securing a third straight blue riband triumph.

The Ballydoyle handler has enjoyed a superb run of results in recognised trials for the Epsom Classic, including victories for new ante-post favourite Delacroix, Lambourn, Mount Kilimanjaro and Puppet Master.

He suffered a rare setback when The Lion In Winter could only finish sixth in the Dante at York on his seasonal debut but the son of Sea The Stars is still very much on course for a crack at the Derby.

O’Brien said: “Obviously the lads will decide. We’ll discuss what we have and where we are.

“At the moment, it could be the horse from the Vase in Chester (Lambourn), it could be Delacroix and the horse from the Dante (The Lion In Winter).

“Maybe all three will run and then obviously we have the two Lingfield horses (Puppet Master and runner-up Stay True).

“They just have to decide what they want to keep back for Ascot, there is a three-year-old mile-and-a-quarter race, a mile-and-a-half and a mile-and-six at Ascot.

“We’ll see how they are all working, talk to Ryan (Moore) and then decide.

“At the moment, Delacroix has gone that route all the time and that’s the route our other horses went before they went (to Epsom).

“Everything has been good with him and obviously he doesn’t look a slow horse but his sister, by Galileo, got a mile-and-six so you would hope that the Derby distance would be within his range.”

Delacroix readily landed the Leopardstown Derby Trial last time out and before that had subsequent Chester and Lingfield scorers Lambourn and Puppet Master in behind when taking the Ballysax at that course.

“They were second and fourth to him in the Ballysax and they came out and ran well in their trials as well,” added O’Brien.

The Lion In Winter ran too freely in the Dante following a long lay-off and the trainer admitted: “We always thought what happened at York could happen but he needed to run if he was going to go to the Derby.”

When it was put to him that Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy bounced back from disappointing three-year-old debuts to win the Derby in recent years, he added: “Obviously they were two exceptional horses and I got it very wrong with them on their first run.

“Because they were so good they were able to come back and do what they did. It’s not the first time and won’t be the last time.

“We were very happy with the run (from The Lion In Winter), he did exactly what we thought could happen. He jumped, he was fresh and things didn’t work.

“He got stopped halfway down the straight and he would have been probably a good third easily. If he hadn’t jumped into the bridle and wanted to tear off early, that would have been another couple of lengths.

“Ryan did the right thing, he said ‘come back and do this right, this is a trial today’.”