Camelot to put rivals to the sword

RACING:AIDAN O'BRIEN took another step towards a possible clean-sweep of this year's British classics with Was in yesterday's Epsom Oaks but it is Camelot around which this afternoon's Investec Derby, and indeed it can be argued, the champion trainer's entire year, revolves.

O’Brien’s unbeaten Guineas winner could start the shortest priced favourite in 65 years for the great race which with nine runners has its the smallest field since Orby first won the Derby for Ireland in 1907.

But perhaps the most important stat of all is the 10 years since O’Brien’s last Derby success.

When Galileo and High Chaparral provided Ireland’s champion trainer with back-to-back Derby wins in 2001-02, the odds on him going a decade without adding to that tally would have been of a sort to make Camelot backers swoon.

With the might of John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud syndicate behind him, the racing world looked set for a sustained period of domination from O’Brien’s world-famous Ballydoyle stable. And to a large extent, that has worked out: except in the race that perhaps remains the most coveted of all.

In the intervening period, O’Brien has finished runner-up in the Derby five times. In 2009 he saddled the second, third, fourth and fifth behind Sea The Stars, one of only two horses in the last forty years to pull off the Guineas-Derby double.

Camelot’s task today is to join the absolute elite of the sport, and to bridge a gap that in Coolmore terms has gone on much too long.

O’Brien has admitted to going home “humbled” by the Derby in the past but should Camelot not score then those humbling experiences will seem almost nostalgic. Even an upset by the other Ballydoyle hope Astrology would leave a salty taste.

As his name suggests, Camelot is something of a Ballydoyle ideal. The son of the late sire Montjeu was an expensive 525,000 Guineas purchase and has looked in O’Brien’s words “special” from the very start. He has already proved himself unique. Sons of Montjeu had never won a top-flight race at a mile. Camelot won the Guineas a month ago and did in style. He defied his genetics at Newmarket and in many ways this Derby revolves around whether or not that positive defiance in the Guineas will turn into a negative at Epsom. A son of Montjeu should be better over a mile and a half but no doubt ‘should’ was a word also used by backers of the 14 odds-on failures in Derby history.

“We are under no illusions with the Derby. We had two very special horses in High Chaparral and Galileo,” O’Brien said yesterday. “There cannot be any chink in their armour and everything has to go right on the day.”

An undoubted plus for Camelot is the comparative lack of depth in Derby 2012. Most of the major trial form is represented but only the Dante winner Bonfire has made a real impression. And concerns over a somewhat “playboy” temperament are not encouraging for Bonfire supporters in the carnival atmosphere of Epsom.

His trainer Andrew Balding is also represented by Minimise Risk and the Englishman will hope to emulate his father Ian who won the Derby in 1971 with Mill Reef.

As if having a heavy odds-on Derby favourite isn’t pressure enough, the trainer also has his 19-year-old son Joseph doing the steering on Camelot.

O’Brien Jnr was coolness personified in the Guineas, steering Camelot through the field to win snugly. Epsom though has a history of catching out even the most experienced jockeys. Greville Starkey on Dancing Brave was a glaring example. Pat Eddery on El Gran Senor too. Both were Guineas winners who ‘should’ have won the Derby.

The 232-year history of racing’s blue-riband has a legacy of uncovering any chink in a horse’s armour. Camelot might not be a betting proposition at these odds but only the ultra-optimistic are likely to bet on Epsom putting a dent in his reputation today.