Chaparral completes Derby double Ballydoyle maestro Aidan O`Brien achieved another notable milestone in his training career when he saddled the first three home in the Budweiser Irish Derby at the Curragh headed by long odds-on chance High Chaparral and Mick Kinane.Sent off at 1/3, the 10th favourite to start at 1/3 or less in the 137 runnings of the race, the Sean Coughlan-bred son of Sadler`s Wells swept to the front at the furlong pole and forged away to defeat 200/1 shot Sholokhov and Italian Derby runner-up Ballingarry.'What a training performance to have a 1-2-3,' remarked joint owner Michael Tabor while winning rider Mick Kinane, successful in the race for the first time last year aboard Galileo said, after his 19th ride in race, 'This is a high class colt. Nothing fazes him and he travelled beautifully and responded when I asked him.' For Sadlers Wells the race, which was watched by a crowd of 27,134, was also a clean sweep as he fathered the first four home while High Chaparral became the fourth horse from Ballydoyle to complete the Epsom/Curragh Derby double after Nijinsky, The Minstrel and Galileo. Orby in 1907 was the first horse to complete glory in both Classics and was also the shortest price winner of the Irish Derby at a virtually unbackable 1/10.Record breaking Aidan O`Brien has the Prix de l`Arc in Paris next October very much in mind for High Chaparral.'He is a very relaxed and well balanced colt and we are thinking of giving him a little break before bringing him back for a prep race before the Arc,' he said. Bookmakers reacted by installing High Chaparral as the warm 5/2 favourite for the Paris spectacle next October.
