As Aidan O’Brien looks to win his 11th Epsom Derby, Delacroix and Lambourn are two of his horses alongside The Lion In Winter and has his full confidence in both ahead of the race, saying Delacroix was ‘always viewed as a derby horse’ since last year.
With Ryan Moore taking his pick at favourite Delacroix for the race, Wayne Lordan will ride Lambourn for O’Brien, and has full faith from the legendary trainer as O’Brien said ‘we’re very happy with him’ ahead of the big race.
Lambourn in particular is currently sitting at about 10/1 in the betting, and has a very good outside chance under Lordan at a sneaky win in a rather unpredictable race, and trainer O’Brien gave his outlook and thoughts on why Lambourn could be a very dangerous contender. ‘He will stay very well, a very uncomplicated horse’ said O’Brien when talking about his chances in the race, and is favoured to be one of the more confident stayers during the race. O’Brien stated how he believes the race will pan out behind his two stars as he said ‘He had a lovely run behind Delacroix in Leopardstown, and that turned out a good run, and will get a mile and a half well.’ and is favouring his two to be great stayers during the derby.
But aside from Lambourn's great improvement from Chester, and his abilities to stay and manage the trip easily, his thoughts on favourite and his superstar Delacroix were much similar, and had some very good things to say about the three year old. ‘His two trial runs (at a mile and a quarter) were a little bit slow, a little bit slower than we would have liked, but won them both very easily once he relaxed’ said O’Brien when talking about the initial struggles thee horse had when upping trip to a mile and a quarter, but then said ‘everything has went very well with him, we are happy with his two runs, and so far so good.’
O’brien talked extremely highly of both horses, and looks as if both have been trained well enough since their runs at Chester for the up in trip. With Ryan Moore making the bold decision to ride Delacroix, it isn't often he gets it wrong, and could see something in the horse others won't. But with full confidence in their staying ability, and confidence that their abilities on the difficult Epsom track, both horses will be on the radar for most punters, and could be another derby day to remember for Aisdan O’Brien.
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