'Unique' Camelot ready for Curragh

Aidan O'Brien has hailed Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby favourite Camelot as "unique" as he bids to conquer unfavourable ground and maintain his unbeaten record at the Curragh on Saturday.

The Irish Classic has been moved from its traditional Sunday slot to the last race on Saturday's card at 7.40pm, in the hope that it attracts a bigger crowd.

Such trivialities mean nothing to O'Brien, who is charged with masterminding the career of a colt who could create history by becoming the first winner of the Triple Crown in over 30 years.

He was given a confident ride by Joseph O'Brien to win the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and then claimed a small-field Derby in impressive style at Epsom.

With O'Brien having won the last six renewals of the Irish equivalent and nine in all, there will not be many backing against him making it the perfect 10 on Saturday.

The only doubt in O'Brien's mind is if the ground were to come up very testing.

"Camelot is a very good-actioned horse. He obviously won the Guineas on slowish ground but it was lovely, fast ground at Epsom," O'Brien told RTE Radio.

"We would obviously have to have concerns if it went very soft and it is not ideal and the more it dries out, the better it is for him.

"Paul (Hensey, Curragh manager) thinks it will be dry enough up to race time and obviously we hope that is the case.

"He's been special all along. He won the Racing Post Trophy last year, then he was very impressive in the Guineas and in the Epsom Derby which was his last start.

"He's always shown a lot of speed, a lot of class, a lot of courage, so he's just one of those unique horses that come along very rarely."

As is usual in the Classics, O'Brien has multiple contenders but there is a slight doubt about one of his intended runners, the Sandown Classic Trial winner Imperial Monarch.

"We hope to run Imperial Monarch but when we were shoeing him he just had a slight little pulse in his foot, we hope that doesn't turn into anything," he said.

"We hope to run him and the horse that was third in the Epsom Derby (Astrology).

"I think John Oxx's two (Born To Sea and Akeed Mofeed), Jim Bolger's (Light Heavy) and Dermot (Weld, Speaking Of Which) has one, they are all legitimate horses who deserve to be in it and it's as competitive as always."