O'Brien reflects on Albert Einstein's Curragh reappearance Betfred eased Albert Einstein out to 10-1 from 7-2 favourites for the 2,000 Guineas after the Wootton Bassett colt finished sixth in the Gladness Stakes on his seasonal debut at the Curragh. Trainer Aidan O’Brien said the vanquished 11/10 favourite would now revert to sprinting. “I think he’s a sprinter and that was a little bit of the reason he was here. It was a very tough call to run him in that ground against older, harder, horses. “Obviously we just have to do the right thing by the horse. “He’s always found it very hard to go slow. Some horses find it very hard to go quick, but he finds it very hard to go slow. Usually that kind of horse needs a very strong tempo early. “The lads will decide, but my initial thought is that he’ll be coming back and he’ll go sprinting. “It’s a very difficult thing to run against those horses in that bad ground. If you have an older horse, strong horse, they can maul a three-year-old. “He was travelling very strong and in that ground you’d have preferred that he would be travelling a gear or two lower. “He’s naturally just not able to do that. His tempo is so quick, he is a very high-tempo horse. It was in the back of my mind that this is a big sprinter. “His level of fitness is the same as the horses that are running ,so they’ll all come on.” When asked if he could work back from the Commonwealth Cup, he added:- “It’s very possible, obviously we’ll go and talk to the lads and see what they want to do, but there is a very good chance that that’s the route he’s going to go. “I know what this horse is able to do. He’s so big and when Ryan sat up on him, he could not believe the width of him. “He’s 560kg going down into that ground, he’s a lot bigger than the horses he was racing against who are probably 460kg or 470kg. This guy is a monster and being that big in heavy ground is very difficult for him. “I was happy with the way he behaved. He didn’t do anything wrong only that he was travelling a gear or two high and then, when he got tired, he didn’t fall in a hole, he kept plugging away. That will do his character the world of good. He got tired and he had to keep going. “He’s a horse who always excited us and I’d say he still will. “Our option was to play it safe, let him come up here tomorrow, get a little bit tired and finish in the middle of them and then we’d go onto the Guineas and see what would happen. “When you go back and think of the Stravinskys and the Mozarts and all them, I saw what they would do over seven furlongs. We’re learning on the job. “He would definitely have a run before the Commonwealth Cup. The sprinters are coming here tomorrow – Charles Darwin, Brussels – we have four sprinters coming here tomorrow and they are all three-year-old sprinters as well and this fella will add into the mix there, as well. This fella was always a bit different, but we’ll see.”
