Report from Longchamp: Aidan O'Brien's nightmare start to 2004 continued at Longchamp yesterday as Antonius Pius snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Gainsborough Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas).

With American Post a 4 to 11 chance to stretch his unbeaten record to six, the Irish raider burst out of the pack a furlong out under Jamie Spencer and looked sure to cause a huge turn-up as he went a length clear with less than 100 yards to run.

But just as victory looked assured, disaster suddenly struck as the colt jinked violently to the right, cannoned into the running rail and all but came to a complete standstill as his rider struggled to keep the partnership intact.

And much to the delight of the favourite's supporters, American Post, who had failed to pick up in the manner expected when asked to quicken by Richard Hughes, suddenly found himself a most fortunate winner of the race as he passed the post half a length ahead of Diamond Green, who was badly hampered by the incident.

Godolphin's Byron was a head back in third.

Antonius Pius and a shell-shocked Spencer scrambled across the line in fifth.

The remarkable circumstances of the contest contrived to leave connections of both the winner and the unlucky loser visibly deflated.

And after a race which did anything but cement the Vodafone Derby claims of American Post, one bookmaking firm removed the colt altogether from their ante-post betting for Epsom, with others pushing him out to 10 to 1 and longer.

Connections were inclined to blame the ground for their charge's performance.

"I tried to go on but they didn't let me, and when I dropped in they slowed it right down - it was no good to me at all," said Hughes.

"But he never really stretched for me like he can, and personally I wouldn't want to run him on ground this fast again.

"He was staying on again at the finish and that's what won him the race. I don't think the trip (at Epsom) would be a problem, but the ground might be."

Trainer Criquette Head-Maarek added: "I didn't think he was running with his normal action today. We won't make any decisions for a week as to where he goes next and obviously I need to speak with the Prince (owner Khalid Abdullah) about it.

"But Richard said that we needed soft ground and I am not about to disagree with him.

"I am disappointed. Of course I am. We would only have been second."

In the immediate aftermath of the race, Ladbrokes chose to remove the winner from their betting and make Yeats the 2 to 1 favourite for the Derby, with Paddy Power going 5 to 2 and Coral 11 to 4.

American Post can be backed at 10 to 1 with Coral, having been 5 to 1 before the race.

But the real story was that of Antonius Pius and the amazing way the clearly quirky colt threw the race away.

"He has got a turn of foot to kill any horse," said Spencer. "Aidan said that I should ride him like he was Nijinsky. I got a gap and he went flying through, but he just suddenly jinked right. He jinked so badly he hit the rail hard and he did well not to go down.

"He's got such serious ability and for him to lose the race like this is just unbelievable."

O'Brien speculated that his charge might have been "playing around" once he hit the front.

"When the gap came, he went straight through and quickened clear but, for some reason, he did what he did," he said.

"I don't know what it was, maybe he shied away from the stands, I need to have a look at the replay. But he seems to be all right now and with the Irish Guineas only a week away, the St James's Palace Stakes could be his next race."

After the poor recent performances of One Cool Cat, Necklace and Brian Boru, to name but a few, O'Brien has not enjoyed much in the way of good luck and will be hoping that things can get back on track over the next fortnight.

They will not, however, be getting back on track with the help of his stable jockey after the stewards banned Spencer for six days (May 25th-30th), having adjudged him guilty of failing to take sufficient corrective action to prevent the horse from hanging right.

Considering that the horse's actions appeared to cause the incident as much as Spencer's, it seemed a harsh decision against the rider, to say the very least.

There was better luck for O'Brien at home yesterday when Wuthering Heights helped the trainer to win his sixth straight two-year-old, seven furlong test at Gowran.