Aidan O’Brien is set to be triple-handed when he attempts to emulate Lester Piggott’s Cazoo Epsom Derby tally of nine victories on Saturday.
Ireland’s champion trainer has a trio of major trial winners – Stone Age, Changingoftheguard and Star Of India – among 18 entries left in flat racing’s “Blue Riband” after Monday’s latest acceptance stage.
Absent from the 18, however, was the Lingfield Trial winner United Nations.
Other Irish hopes revolve around O’Brien’s son Donnacha who will leg Frankie Dettori on to the Ballysax winner Piz Badile, while Co Tyrone-based trainer Andy Oliver has kept open the option of running the outsider Glory Daze.
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The latter finished runner-up to the apparent Ballydoyle number one Stone Age in Leopardstown’s Derby Trial earlier this month.
As anticipated, the all-conquering Godolphin team supplemented Nations Pride into the Derby on Monday at a cost of £75,000 (€88,000).
Also supplemented was the Stan Moore-trained outsider El Habeeb.
Favourite for the race is the unbeaten Sir Michael Stoute star Desert Crown who won the Dante at York impressive style.
Stoute will equal Vincent O’Brien’s Derby haul of six wins should Desert Crown emerge on top.
However, on the week of Piggott’s passing, the current master of Ballydoyle has the legendary jockey’s landmark total in his sights.
O’Brien has achieved unprecedented Derby dominance with six wins in the last decade alone, a run that also puts him on the verge of breaking the overall record for English classic success.
The Irishman is currently on 40 wins alongside the 19th-century trainer John Scott.
A new mark may be reached on Friday in the Oaks where O’Brien has four of the 12 entries including both Concert Hall and Tuesday.
His other son Joseph will have his own contender in the Oaks through Tranquil Lady.
As well as his eight Derby wins, O’Brien snr has landed the 2,000 Guineas 10 times, the Oaks on nine occasions with half a dozen St Leger victories and seven in the 1,000 Guineas.
Unusually he has yet to hit the Group One mark in 2022 but Stone Age is rated a general 7-2 favourite behind Desert Crown to put that right in the most prestigious prize of all.
O’Brien has stated that Ryan Moore will find it hard to ignore Stone Age’s claims although the English jockey hasn’t won the Derby since 2013 on Ruler Of The World.
Changingoftheguard emerged on top in the Chester Vase earlier this month while Star Of Indica landed the Dee Stakes.
On Monday, O’Brien took out both United Nations and Ivy League from the Derby reckoning.
Another notable defector was Joseph O’Brien’s Buckaroo. He failed to live up to expectations in the Irish 2,000 Guineas behind Native Trail on his last start but could return to action at Royal Ascot.
Epsom could see a different slice of history in the Oaks should Hollie Doyle become the first woman to ride an English classic winner.
Doyle will team up with the John & Thady Gosden trained Nashwa in the fillies classic, a race in which the Englishwoman’s husband, Tom Marquand, will ride Tranquil Lady.
On Monday, Doyle referenced Rachael Blackmore’s ground-breaking exploits over jumps as an inspiration ahead of her classic assignment.
“Like Rachael Blackmore winning the Grand National, winning a British classic is something I dream of doing over the next 10 years or so. So, if it could happen on Friday it would be great,” she said.
“Look at the reaction there was when Rachael won the Grand National. It’s one of the toughest horse races in the world to win and she did that so if I could win a British classic it would be a dream come true for me personally and could hopefully inspire other women to get into the sport.
“It’s a great opportunity to get a ride with a live chance,” she said.
Nashwa is a general 9-2 second favourite behind her stable companion Emily Upjohn who will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.
As for the prospect of fighting it out at the finish with her husband, Doyle is unperturbed.
“He might be my husband but when we’re in those gates it’s very competitive. We don’t give each other an inch really and we both want to win.
“I suppose from the outside looking in it’s pretty weird and unique. But I think we’re so used to it now that it’s not really a thing,” she said.
