Odds-on favourite Camelot won the Irish Derby on Saturday to hand trainer Aidan O’Brien his seventh successive victory, and 10th overall, in the Classic.
The 1-5 favourite was always cantering under the trainer’s son Joseph, but when he was let down over a furlong out he jinked left and Johnny Murtagh attacked aboard Born to Sea, the eventual runner-up.
For a stride or two he looked a genuine threat but Camelot soon had his measure and went on to win with authority.
The absence of any headline contenders from Britain or France in the race, which featured just five runners, was testimony to the soaring reputation Camelot has attained in his short racing life.
Camelot became the 16th horse to complete the Epsom-Curragh Derby double, but the first since High Chaparral, also trained by O’Brien, in 2002.
While victory in Ireland’s premier classic is a notable prize to add to his burgeoning cv a far more important date looms on the horizon for Camelot in the shape of the St Leger at Doncaster in September.
If Camelot succeeds in claiming the world’s oldest classic run over one and three quarter miles he will become the first since Nijinsky – trained by O’Brien’s namesake Vincent O’Brien – back in 1970 to lift the coveted Triple Crown of Guineas, Derby and St Leger.
AFP gjw
