Puerto Rico and Gstaad could form O’Brien Guineas challenge

Aidan O’Brien will consider running both Gstaad and Puerto Rico in the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket this spring.

The Ballydoyle handler has saddled a record 10 winners of the Rowley Mile Classic and possesses another strong hand ahead of this year’s renewal, with Gstaad and Puerto Rico joined towards the head of the ante-post betting by stablemate Albert Einstein, who missed the second half of his two-year-old campaign through injury.

Gstaad and Puerto Rico did get the chance to fulfil their potential, however, with the former rounding off the year by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar and the latter claiming successive Group One wins in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Criterium International in France.

The pair have both been given a rating of 119 in the two-year-old classifications, putting them 2lb behind Andrew Balding’s European champion juvenile Gewan.

Considering plans for this season for the duo, O’Brien said: “Gstaad looks probably an English Guineas horse to start off.

“We were very happy with him last year. We were a little bit disappointed with him in the Dewhurst (second to Gewan), it just didn’t go right for him and he just got trapped back a little bit. He ended up in not a nice position really, but we were delighted with him in America.

“Puerto Rico is a good, strong, big, mature horse. He could be an English Guineas horse or a French Guineas horse on the way to an Irish Guineas. We entered him in Dubai in the Classic, the three-year-old dirt race, but it’ll probably come too early and if that is the case, he’ll probably end up starting in one of the Guineas, either the English or the French.

“Maybe the two would go to the Guineas (at Newmarket). We think he (Puerto Rico) is that type of horse, he’s a high cruiser and it’s possible that he could get further than a mile, even though he has plenty of pace.”

O’Brien also houses the ante-post favourite for the Derby at Epsom in Pierre Bonnard (rated 113), who won three of his four juvenile starts including a Group One triumph in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

Another likely contender for the premier Classic is Hawk Mountain (116), winner of the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster.

“Hawk Mountain is a lovely horse, he could be a French Derby horse and he could be an Epsom Derby horse too. We couldn’t be happier with him,” O’Brien continued.

“Pierre Bonnard we think is a made Epsom horse. He looks like he should get a mile and a half well, he’s a big horse. We’ll start him in a trial and see.

“We’ll probably do the same with Hawk Mountain, but Pierre Bonnard looks like a proper Epsom type horse and could come back to an Irish Derby after that.”

The master of Ballydoyle has made no secret of the regard in which he holds Albert Einstein, while he has several other colts with untapped potential.

When asked for a few horses who could step up this season, O’Brien said: “Isaac Newton ran well in France at the end of the year and could be nice, we could see more of him.

“A horse called George Stubbs who hasn’t run yet, he’s a Camelot horse, and Flushing Meadows by Wootton Bassett. He was second at Leopardstown.

“Constitution River is another one, as is Albert Einstein, and Montreal won a maiden very impressively at Leopardstown and could be anything.”

The trainer possesses a similarly formidable team of three-year-old fillies for this season, headed by the Moyglare Stud Stakes and Fillies’ Mile heroine Precise.

The daughter of Starspangledbanner, who missed a planned outing at the Breeders’ Cup due to an infection, is the joint highest-rated juvenile filly from last term alongside stablemate True Love (both 115).

O’Brien said: “Precise will probably start in the 1000 Guineas (at Newmarket). She obviously went to America and didn’t get to run, but the experience would have done her no harm.

“True Love is lovely. I went to the Juvenile Turf Sprint in America with her (finished eighth) and I probably should have left her for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, but we thought Precise was going there so there was no point running her in that against Precise.

“She’s lovely, she’s done very well and we could think about starting at seven furlongs in Leopardstown or in one of the British trials at Newbury or somewhere like that, and see if there would be a chance that she would get a mile.

“If that was the case, obviously she’ll go down the Guineas route. If we thought not, then she’d obviously go the sprinting route.”

Diamond Necklace (113) rounded off an unbeaten juvenile season with victory in the Prix Marcel Boussac and is another filly with immense promise.

“Diamond Necklace is lovely. It’s possible that she could do that (run in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket) or she could go to a French Guineas, because she won the Boussac, but I would imagine she will probably start at a mile and we’ll see where we go after that,” O’Brien added.