No work-out for O'Brien's team
Friday, 26 October 2001 16:20Aidan O'Brien surprised the locals by not bringing any of his strong Breeders' Cup team out on to the track for a work-out which is an integral part of the training regime in America. His party, headed by dual Derby winner Galileo, arrived at Belmont Park on Tuesday night and have now cleared quarantine. But the Irish trainer elected not to give any of the horses a work-out on the course on Thursday as he is confident they are in shape for their tasks on Saturday.
"They didn't go out on the track, it was our choice," he said. "It depended on how they were and we didn't decide until this morning but they all seemed well and seemed happy enough to stay in. They will do a canter tomorrow morning but at this stage it would only have been to our advantage, not theirs, to put them out there."
His team, which also includes crack sprinter Mozart, will race on Lasix, a drug not allowed in European racing which is designed to prevent bleeding and is widely used in the USA. The trainer believes that the likely strong pace in Saturday's Classic will be ideal for Galileo, who lost his unbeaten record in the Irish Champion Stakes on his latest start.
"We thought we got beaten tactically last time and it wasn't the horse's fault," he said. "He wants a strongly-run race and they went a nice bit slower than he wanted. He has a very high cruising pace then he grinds them out at the end of it and we think the pace of a US race will suit him."
Mozart has an apparently unfavourable outside draw in the Sprint but O'Brien said: "He is a very, very serious horse and speed has always been his big thing. There is a lot of speed on the inside and at least now Michael has plenty of options."
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
