'His strike-rate is under 9% over the last three weeks' - Is Aidan O'Brien out of form? Emma Nagle and Johnny Ward discussed the current form of Aidan O’Brien’s yard after the Ballydoyle trainer drew a blank on Irish Oaks weekend at the Curragh. In the latest episode of The Irish Angle Emma Nagle highlighted his poor strike rate: “You’d have to go back a long way to find the last Oaks weekend without an Aidan O’Brien winner on the card. His strike-rate is under 9% over the last three weeks, which would be uncharacteristic at this time of year. “You can often see it at the start of the year, where his runners might need a run, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.” Johnny Ward added: “It was a mad weekend with regard to Aidan. I think he had five of the last six finishers in the Oaks, he didn’t really have an outstanding candidate, but it’s still kind of mad. “There were some fingers burnt. I couldn’t believe the odds that White Sand Beach went off at - a 4/5 favourite for a horse of her profile. “Ibelieveicanfly was a 1/3 favourite. It’ll definitely be interesting to see his runners over the next few days and the next week because I was actually talking to a guy who bets heavily in Killarney. “He backs short-priced horses, and he was saying he’s on a bad run at the moment. The tin hat on the bad run was Aidan’s horse in the first race at Killarney, which was around 3/1 ON and was quite well beaten as well. “I was thinking at the time, “God, that horse is a very short price considering the horses he was taking on in the race.” But maybe there is something to the stable form. “I never really remember Aidan being badly out of form, but we’ll see how the next runners go for him.” Watch the Irish Angle in Full Race replays are FREE to watch from all Irish tracks and a selection of premier British tracks sponsored by William Hill.
