Aidan O’Brien saddling Camelot against Bonfire for the Investec Epsom Derby
The hall mark trainer Aidan O’Brien has remained without an Epsom Derby win for the last ten years. The last time that he won the honour was back in 2002 with High Chaparral and before that he got it through saddling Galileo.
This time he covered the ground with Astrology, Father Of Science, Imperial Monarch and Tower Rock previously and now is left with Astrology and Camelot. However his biggest shot for the Investec Epsom Derby is Camelot. His chances for the win surged as
never before after winning the Qipco 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket. That too he capitalised on by being entered as the favourite.
His credentials beat those of the rest as he is unbeaten since the three career starts, all of them have him entered as the favourite.
The ultimate threat for him is Andrew Balding trained Bonfire. The three-year-old has the same number of races against his name but the only marked difference is that not all of them are wins, just two are.
He also became a betting popular for the most significant spectacle of the British Horse Racing calendar by striking his very recent race. He won the Group 2 Dante Stakes on 17th May at York over a mile and two and a half furlongs. As has been
the case before, not all who win the Dante lose the Investec Derby. Rather the race is one of the most important and at many times the most accurate indicator for the candidate with the highest of the chances to win the race.
'Bonfire has always had his own ideas - nothing more than that. But the more we have done with him, the better he has become".
"He has his moments - all horses do - and anyway, there are lots of athletes, equine and human, who aren't all straightforward, but who are pretty brilliant when competing. Hopefully he's one of them."
"We have a real chance with Bonfire, but the noises coming out of Ballydoyle [where Camelot is trained by Aidan O'Brien] indicate that we are up against a real beast”, commented Andrew Balding.
The two are bound to give one another a very hard time during the race and the trainers too will not have an easy moment before their trainees break and the outcome gets declared.
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