St Nicholas Abbey back for autumn campaign
Such is the pace of Flat racing at this time of year that the days when St Nicholas Abbey was the potential star of the season have already receded in the memory.
His position, already made precarious by his lacklustre sixth in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket seven weeks ago, was finally made untenable by a poor gallop in the week before he was due to run in the Derby and the muscle injury that forced him to be scratched days before that race.
His trainer, Aidan O’Brien, had never wavered from his belief in St Nicholas Abbey, who was rated as the champion two-year-old for last season after his three-and-three-quarter-length defeat of Elusive Pimpernel in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster last October, and the trainer still thinks that the colt will ultimately prove his doubters to be wrong.
He views patience to be the key to getting the son of Motnjeu back to his best and, speaking on attheraces, O’Brien said: “Our advice at the time was to give him an easy few days so we decided to give him the month of June off. We'll start back slowly then and hopefully we'll have him back for an autumn campaign.
"When it went a little bit pear-shaped on us we decided not to punish him and just go back slowly to give him all the time he could possibly need. We're looking forward to when he comes back, but I don't know when that will be. We'll let him tell us day by day but hopefully he'll have a trial before he goes in one of the big races in the autumn.”
The loss of St Nicholas Abbey from his Derby runners forced O’Brien to promote Jan Vermeer in a hasty reshuffle of Ballydoyle’s three-year-old colts. Jan Vermeer had been held up in his prep work by a minor injury before impressing when he won the Gallinule Stakes at the Curragh. On the strength of that, O’Brien opted to switch him from his original target, the Prix Du Jockey Club in France, and Johhny Murtagh chose him as his Derby mount, a race in which Jan Vermeer finished a distant fourth to Workforce having lost both front shoes.
His upcoming entries include the Irish Derby and Eclipse Stakes and O’Brien said: “He seems to be fine, he came out of the race very well. I suppose, with the benefit of hindsight, he was just ready to run at the Curragh and we had in mind to go to the French Derby with him because it is an easier option.
“Obviously when St Nicholas Abbey had the mishap we re-thought everything but it might have come too soon for him. Two weeks might not have been enough time for the improvement to come. He lost two shoes [in the Derby] but he was perfect after.”
If the St Nicholas Abbey of the past could turn up at some time in the near future it would be just perfect for O’Brien.
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