BBC SPORT | Other Sports | Horse Racing | Epsom Derby 2002



by Lee McKenzie BBC Five Live senior racing commentator

Being responsible for the two Vodafone Derby favourites would be enough to propel most trainers to dangerous stress levels, but Aidan O'Brien is as calm as we have come to expect.

During a recent trip to his stables, at Ballydoyle in south-east Ireland, I found him to be coping admirably with the run-up to the most famous event in the British Flat racing calendar.

Out on the gallops around nine o'clock in the morning, he watches intently as his stable stars go though their daily work.

"There's Hawk Wing," he whispers as he spots the magnificent colt on whom so many hopes will be pinned at Epsom.

Aidan O'Brien is master of the powerful Ballydoyle stable
O'Brien is seeking his second straight Epsom Derby win

High Chaparral is there too, along with the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Rock Of Gibraltar.

O'Brien is able to name them all, 50 or more, as they fly past.

Two of the string don't have names yet but he identifies them by pedigree.

The naming of so many horses by sight, at a distance of about 100 metres, sounds like a clever party piece but to O'Brien it is all part of the routine.

"I see them every day," he points out, modestly, "so I'd be stupid if I didn't recognise them."

Hawk Wing and High Chaparral have dominated the betting during the run-up to the Epsom Classic and their trainer is pleased with them.

Derby odds

Hawk Wing is widely perceived to be the "chosen one", the horse of whom great things are expected.

But O'Brien gently disputes that theory. He says of the handsome three-year-old: "He was always a very exciting natural horse from day one; a horse of great scope, great action.

"From the first time he started racing we were always dreaming that he could be a Derby horse."

But O'Brien has a message for anyone who believes that High Chaparral lacks the acceleration of a typical Derby winner.

"He has plenty of speed. He wouldn't have been out of place in a 2,000 Guineas," he says.

Sports Talk: Your Derby tips

According to the trainer, both are relaxed enough to cope with the atmosphere on Derby day and he declines to choose between the two of them.

"I'd be delighted if any of them won," he says, referring to the fact that he may have other runners in the line-up, too

Some Derby runners from other stables fail to cope with the tricky Epsom circuit but the Ballydoyle team ought to be able to take it in their stride.

High Chaparral is a leading O'Brien contender
High Chaparral has looked impressive

They are trained around a section of the gallops which is modelled on Tattenham Corner, so none of them should be surprised when they meet the real thing.

Whatever his fate on 8 June, O'Brien's famously placid temperament means he will have no problem coping with the outcome.

"I find it easier to sleep when we have a bad day than when we have a good one," he says.

"At the end of a good day, everyone's in good form and you want to stay awake.

"You like to make it last as long as you can.

"When it doesn't go well, you just have to look to tomorrow - you might as well go to bed."

A philosophy like that makes him ideally equipped to cope with the rollercoaster of life at the top in horse racing - just as his horses are primed to deal with the rollercoaster known as the Epsom Derby.


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