O’Brien feels Darkness Falls has Triple Crown potential Aidan O’Brien believes his impressive Irish Champions Weekend winner Darkness Falls could potentially be his first realistic Triple Crown contender since Camelot. Camelot was famously denied becoming the first horse since Nijinsky in 1970 to win the 2000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger in the final leg by Encke in 2012. John Oxx’s Sea The Stars won the Guineas and Derby three years earlier, but the season’s final Classic at Doncaster was never really on his radar as he instead signed off his brilliant career in the following month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It is therefore approaching 60 years since Nijinsky achieved British Flat racing’s Holy Grail, but O’Brien feels he has another possible candidate on his hands. “Darkness Falls could be our first Triple Crown horse since Camelot. He looks to have the capacity to stay, he has that speed,” he told www.coolmore.com. “The next place to go with him is the thing. Do we go to the Dewhurst or the Futurity Trophy? It’s possible he could go to the Dewhurst, he could have the pace for it. “He is unusual, he has a super mind, he’s a great traveller and he quickens so we’ll see how he is, but he’s obviously really exciting.” Constitution River was this year’s big hope for O’Brien after winning the French Guineas, French Oaks and the Eclipse, but defeats at York and in the Irish Champion Stakes have dented his reputation and he could potentially drop down to a mile next for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot. He said: “There’s a chance that we’ve been doing the wrong thing with him and he’s the miler and Gstaad is the mile-and-a-quarter horse. They are both top colts, we just have to decide with him do we go to Ascot. “It’s possible he could go to the mile, and does Gstaad go to Ascot and go up to a mile and a quarter (Champion Stakes)? At the start of the year we always thought he would go up (in trip).” One who did live up to expectations last weekend was Sun Goddess, who romped to victory in the Moyglare Stud Stakes. “Sun Goddess looks a freak, that’s all you can say,” said O’Brien. “There was a good chance she wouldn’t get the seven (furlongs) but instead of it exposing her it exposed everybody else. If everything is well she could go back for the Cheveley Park, why not.” Looking ahead to the Arc, O’Brien’s team does not looks as potentially strong as it did in the first half of the season, but he could still be well represented, especially as several in his yard have been affected by a low grade infection. “Benvenuto Cellini, we felt in the race in France (fifth in Prix Niel) the pacemaker went off and none of the others followed him so it became a tactical race which didn’t suit him,” said O’Brien. “He did give a few coughs for a few days when he got back. His coughing is starting to disappear, but his scoping is perfect and he should be fine come Arc time if the ground is nice, if not he’ll go to America. “Minnie Hauk will probably go to the Arc and it looks like she’ll be at her best of the year come Arc weekend as long as she doesn’t give a cough or anything. “Diamond Necklace is in great shape, she has a choice of either the Arc or the Prix de l’Opera, she is in good order. “I might have backed her up too quick in Deauville and not had enough respect for the competition. I thought she would win, but she got a bit tired in the bad ground so she’s probably better than that.”
