The instructions from der Sports Fuhrer were admirably specific. Don't get starry-eyed about well known Classic hopes like Minardi or Hemingway. Just find O'Brien's dark horse. Guess what? It was easy. The horse's name is Pebble Island and he will have his first race on Monday.
"He could be a Derby horse. Look at the presence of him," Aidan O'Brien observed yesterday to the hordes of press people, who nodded sagely and prayed they were looking at the right horse among the battalion of frighteningly expensive blue bloods at the world-famous Ballydoyle stables.
"When he was pulling up after a piece of work last year, he got a kick from another horse and that stopped him having a race. But he's ready now to run in the mile and a quarter maiden at Leopardstown on Monday," O'Brien added of the rangy dark son of the American stallion, Deputy Minister.
Duty done, it was easy to get carried away on this annual trip to these great stables. Now is the time of year when potential hasn't been tempered by experience, and as usual the string assembled by John Magnier and Michael Tabor reeks of possibilities. Especially now that horses can travel to foot-and-mouth ravaged Britain, even if they cannot return to their South Tipperary home afterwards.
"There's no doubt, as things stand, if we send horses for the English Guineas they will stay over there for Royal Ascot too, but we 'll have to wait and see what happens. Whatever we do will depend on what the Minister for Agriculture wants us to do," said O'Brien.
The obvious question as to which horses will be on that Newmarket-bound plane led to a series of names that could make this year far more than a nostalgic pang for last season's champion, Giant's Causeway.
Minardi scampered up the all weather gallop with Mick Kinane on his back for the first time since that Middle Park victory, and the trainer reported: "He's very forward and wouldn't need a run before the Guineas."
O'Brien divided his top prospects into sprinters, milers and Derby horses. Interestingly, only one, the Leopardstown maiden winner Galileo, crossed the division of Guineas and Derby.
"He's got a lot of class but a mile and a half shouldn't be a problem," said O'Brien, who will waste no time starting the stoutlybred Sadler's Wells colt in Monday's Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown. Kinane concurred and said: "From the first time I rode him last spring I've been amazed at how much pace he shows, and you always need that quality in a top horse."
Encouraging stuff, which still allowed names like Mozart, set to start in the Guineas Trial on Monday, to be mentioned in terms of the English 2,000; King's County for the French, and the highly rated Hemingway for the Irish classic. "Hemingway missed three weeks after pulling a muscle, which made me take him out of the Newmarket Guineas. But he could be back in time for the Tetrarch Stakes and he has a big chance of being back for the Irish Guineas," O'Brien said.
Sequoyah and Imagine were nominated as Ballydoyle's top Classic hopes for the fillies' races and, as per usual, the string of two-year-olds were aweinspiringly expensive.
The Storm Cat colt who cost $6.8 million in Keeneland last year is named Tasmanian Tiger, and the depth of resources at Ballydoyle is such that O'Brien can say "we're taking our time with him" and not sprout a single grey hair.
Then there's a son of Sadler's Wells, Diaghilav, who cost a cool £3.4 million in Newmarket; Roar Of The Tiger, who is a full brother to Giant's Causeway; and the Danzig colt who topped the Goffs market at £2 million is called Century City.
"A nice team," the trainer concluded with masterful understatement. Certainly nice enough to whet the appetite of a public starved of action for so long.
