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Bit of the ‘football manager syndrome’ I’d imagine. Someone sticks a microphone in his face straight after his horse loses again.
I was half listening to the interview but must have missed the slight on Frankel’s team. From what I did hear he sounded fairly resigned to the horse’s defeat, basically blaming it on a "long season".
At least they’re keeping Camelot on the go as a four year old. As he said that’s a sporting gesture from the owners. It will be interesting to see how he fares next season.
… assuming he doesn’t go and injure himself in training and have to be retired before his four year old career begins. (How cynical is that?
)Didn’t hear anything snide in the interview. Would also be very surprised if there was, given that Coolmore and Juddmont have a good working relationship (just remember how Frankel came about)
He said "its the easiest thing in the world to keep a top miler over a mile or mile and a quarter".
If thats not aimed at Juddmonte / Warren Place then I’m a dutchman. I cannot have been the only one to pick up on that surely?
I never picked that up PC but AOB did seem a bit hyped up when Matt Chapman was interviewing him. He was certainly VERY bullish about Camelot’s prospects at 4. He mentioned, in a sort of round about way, that the colt was the best he’d trained. When pressed by MC, who quite rightly sniffed that this could be a bit of a scoop, Aidan reiterated, in very clear terms, that he thought the horse WAS the best he’d trained.
Lots of ‘listens’, but not a single ‘do you understand’ which seems to have been ditched since the post-Leger interviews.
An interesting character, anything BUT boring IMO.
Listen again David – see what you think to the quotes I quoted.
Fair comment regarding "boring" – I made a poor comment out of sheer surprise of such a controversial comment coming from the man.
He said "its the easiest thing in the world to keep a top miler over a mile or mile and a quarter".
If thats not aimed at Juddmonte / Warren Place then I’m a dutchman. I cannot have been the only one to pick up on that surely?
De heer Peruvian hallo, leuk je te ontmoeten
You could equally view the words as singing the praises of Camelot and the Coolmore crew rather than aiming the words elsewhere.
I never picked that up PC but AOB did seem a bit hyped up when Matt Chapman was interviewing him. He was certainly VERY bullish about Camelot’s prospects at 4. He mentioned, in a sort of round about way, that the colt was the best he’d trained. When pressed by MC, who quite rightly sniffed that this could be a bit of a scoop, Aidan reiterated, in very clear terms, that he thought the horse WAS the best he’d trained.
Lots of ‘listens’, but not a single ‘do you understand’ which seems to have been ditched since the post-Leger interviews.
An interesting character, anything BUT boring IMO.
I’ve never been a big fan of AOB. He’s called a genius but there are plenty trainers who would be doing the business if they had access to the cream available to the O’Brien team. I don’t buy into all the bull about a long hard season being to blame today. Camelot could have been run in other races but they chose the Irish Derby in gutters and the St Leger, when there was no need for either. The Arc should have been his aim all along instead of the afterthought that it was. How the hell he was 9/4 today, when we knew he didn’t like the ground, we knew he was coming in having run below his Derby form in the Leger and we knew he was not a certain runner until the 10th, if not 11th, hour, is a mystery that can only be explained by the lemming like tendency of the great betting community that keeps bookies in Rolls Royces and big fat cigars. They made an Erse of his campaign and I’ll believe it when I actually see this "Wonder Horse" actually prove he is a "Champion". So far it has been talk over substance.
Nah, there are far more modest and affable trainers out there, maybe not as "Interesting" as Matt Damon’s lookalike but a lot nicer to speak and listen to.
Yours faithfully, on behalf of The Farting Sack Trainer’s Federation.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
He might be saying it would have been easy for us to keep Camelot,who won the Guineas ,to a mile or a mile and a quarter.But we stretched him to the Derby and the St.Leger.Simple as that.Of course they paid the price in the Leger but that is the risk they took,failure is always a possibility.Easier not to take the risk is contained in the context of the statement I would think.I believe Frankels connections would wholeheartedly agree.So would Black Caviar’s.It is easier to stay in your comfort zone.That is human nature.Most people avoid moving out of their comfort zone.I must confess the interview was not carried here in the States
He might be saying it would have been easy for us to keep Camelot,who won the Guineas ,to a mile or a mile and a quarter.But we stretched him to the Derby and the St.Leger.Simple as that.Of course they paid the price in the Leger but that is the risk they took,failure is always a possibility.Easier not to take the risk is contained in the context of the statement I would think.I believe Frankels connections would wholeheartedly agree.So would Black Caviar’s.It is easier to stay in your comfort zone.That is human nature.Most people avoid moving out of their comfort zone.I must confess the interview was not carried here in the States
Do you honestly believe for one minute that Aiden and his owners would have run their unbeaten classic winning colt in the Leger if he thought for one fleeting fraction of a second it might be beaten? Get real Andy. No trainer risks a high quality horse. They run them in races that they expect to win. Sir Henry has thus far got it right, Aiden unfortunately didn’t.
It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were singing Aiden’s praises as he reeled off the first 4 classics and had a seemingly unassailable lead in the trainers championship. He has had a few knockbacks recently but I’m prepared to give the guy a break.
Having said that, it has been a poor second half of the season by their high standards and their recent form in particular has been bad. I was shocked that they ran Camelot here as an afterthought especially as he seemed to have a hard race at Doncaster and even more so after the ground got soft. We all saw how he struggled in it at the Curragh. This morning I kept checking the RP site expecting to see him down as a non runner. In the end though,let’s be honest, he ran pretty much to form.
Still I can never understand why trainers run horses in the Arc as an afterthought. Could you imagine Nicholls, Henderson or Mullins doing such a thing in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham?
I am so glad Frankel didn’t run in that race. I said this morning that you could give me 5 picks and I wouldnt get the winner – well I would actually have needed 12 or 13 to get to that filly! Orfevre was by some way the best horse but a combination of draw, ground and his propensity to quirkiness found him out. Who knows what would have happened to the Great One but I am pretty sure we would not have seen him at his best in those conditions and for me that would have been a shame.
As for Camelot, well he will get another chance to show what he can do next year when, depending on how many older horses stay in training, decent opposition could be thin on the ground.
If AOB and "the boys" could have this season again would they have gone for the same programme? Would they have run him in that ground at the Curragh? Would they have gone for the Leger AND the Arc. I remember thinking the same thing last year when they attempted to win the Arc, Champion AND Breeders Cup with SYT and ended up with nothing so prehaps they would have.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I have to agree with Hammy and Steve that the campaign seems to have been misconceived and not properly thought through. Mistakes have clearly been made but we are all human aren’t we?
I said a few weeks ago that this season we have two legendary trainers claiming they are training the best they have ever had. One of those horses is still unbeaten, still improving and soon to join the immortals. The other was today left looking shoeless and clueless in the Longchamp mud. Complete vindication of the meticulous masterplan formulated by Sir Henry and shows that AOB, whilst clearly a great trainer, still has a thing or two to learn.
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
It is perfectly clear that Sir Henry and Juddmonte have trained Frankel absolutely perfectly. With the benefit of hindsight, the campaign mapped out for Camelot was slightly less than perfect.
That said there wasn’t the slightest chance of him dropping to a distance around 10 furlongs at any stage as he would have been trounced by Frankel.
Lets hope that he does come back as a 4 year old and prove his true worth, as a 14 furlong trip followed by an Arc mudbath would tax even a really great horse.
Lets give the horse a bit more time to live up to some of their hopes.
But is he in the same league as Frankel – no way.i dont think the ground is to blame for camelots defeat today. he is struggling to show the speed he possessed in the racing post trophy and guineas.
maybe he will be better next year, maybe he wont. but based on that arc run, it is debatable to me that he is the best o’brien has trained.
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