Ol' Man River

It's fecked. Out the back not quicken came to a stand still not good I'm on at 25/1 but not going to get there. Let's hope the horse is alright. Couldn't go the pace let quicken alone a yard. Sad but that is life. Ground possibly a bit too quick.

On the o brien fansite reports are that he lost his action and the ground was far to firm for it. Pre race they said that he would love the surface. Very disappointing effort whichever way you look at it.

aidan obrien and maybe coolmore continue to make mistakes, just look what they did to st nic when running him in guineas, camelot won a soft ground guineas remember

yes i am on ol man big for the derby, a few bags return, why it ever really ran today i dont know, won over a mile at two, by montjeu, really obrien what were you thinking, without coolmore i honestly dont believe obrien would be any good as a trainer

remember cape blanco won the dante but he sent him to to france...

Would have gone down the Derby trial route back in Ireland myself. Have resigned myself that he won't be going to Epson now. It might be the case that he is not that good. Every horse deserves a second chance though. Will be interesting to see what the fallout is from this race.

we can but hope for whatever reason things can be sorted, if he is that good anyway and something was just a miss, got a bit squashed coming out of gate and joseph pulled him out of horses in front early on to get a bit more room, could be host of reasons that he injured something which affected is running and just could not keep up the speed

yes i am clinging on i know

The race it reminds me of is Declaration of War in the Lockinge - horse was way under-cooked.

OMR did look excellent, like a proper 3yo specimen, and it's so rare for such a good 2yo (and not one that was raced to pieces) to lose its ability when it clearly has done well physically.

Of course, he was a very definite second string, they fancied Gleneagles a lot, so he probably wasn't pushed in getting ready for it, and probably he needed a lot more work.

Why run him then. Could have got him ready at home instead of running him on firm ground on his third start and being drawn out in the car park. Sometimes some of their decisions seem baffling to me. It was obvious he was the second string today but you would have hoped for better. Should have took him to the derrinstown.

i agree try my best, they do make strange decisions at times

Having viewed the race a few times now, Ol'Man River seemed to lose his action on the undulations & fast ground to me, prob finding things happening to quickly for him first time up. Young Joe did the right thing to ease him right down & let him coast home from 2 out. Hopefully it has not jarred him up & he is fine this morn, there will be other days for him over further.

AOB on atr a few mins ago, all fine with both horses this morn (2000gns runners)