One pony from the Aidan O’Brien stable supplanted one more on Sunday at the highest point of the market for the Derby one month from now, as Stone Age was sliced to 3-1 number one for the Classic following a simple success in Leopardstown’s Derby Trial 30 minutes after the coach had precluded Luxembourg, third in last month’s 2,000 Guineas, because of a solid issue.
Stone Age, shipped off number one at 10-11, made the vast majority of the running under Ryan Moore and was several lengths ahead turning for home. At the point when Moore asked him for a completing kick he immediately moved further clear of his field, at last going too far five and a half lengths clear of Glory Daze, a 18-1 outcast.
It was O’Brien’s fifteenth outcome in the Leopardstown preliminary, however just two of his past champs – Galileo and High Chaparral in 2000 and 2001 separately – have followed up at Epsom.
“I’ve generally loved the pony,” Moore said thereafter. “He was extremely great at Navan and he’s starting to assemble it now. I believe the present preliminary was a decent race and I think he’ll most likely improve once more, so he’s an extremely interesting yearling.
“He gave me an awesome vibe at Navan and he gave me a generally excellent feel as a two-year-old, he ran in the [Group One] Lagardère at seven [furlongs] on terrible ground and he wasn’t beaten far and could never have been believed to best impact in the circumstances.”
Stone Age was sliced from 12-1 to an overall 3-1 for the Derby on 4 June after Sunday’s race and appears sure to begin number one for the Classic except if Sir Michael Stoute’s Desert Crown (6-1) sets up a similarly unequivocal execution in the Dante Stakes at York on Thursday.
Luxembourg, the champ of last season’s Vertem Futurity at Doncaster, had prior been controlled out of the Classic due to a muscle issue and is probably going to be down and out for a significant part of the late spring.
“Luxembourg must have a month or a month and a half of box rest,” O’Brien said. “It’s a strong issue behind and the tests uncovered that he needed to have a month or a month and a half box rest to allow it to mend and make the best decision by the pony.
“In any case, ideally he’ll be back for the harvest time, that is the arrangement. Some of the time with solid [problems] you can continue onward, and once in a while you can’t. Rest was the main remedy for it.”
