Camelot. O'Brien family treasure.
Camelot and St Nicholas Abbey gave owners Coolmore, trainer Aidan O’Brien and son Joseph in the saddle a spectacular day at Epsom, landing the first two middle distance races in the 2012 QIPCO British Champions Series in scintillating style.
Camelot maintained his unbeaten record by winning Britain’s richest Flat race, the Investec Derby, while St Nicholas Abbey took the Diamond Jubilee Coronation Cup (sponsored by Investec). This followed victory for the Coolmore filly Was, also trained by O’Brien, in yesterday’s Investec Oaks.
O’Brien has now won five of the eight QIPCO British Champions Series races run to date to establish a 90 point lead in the Trainer of the Series table with 120 points, while Joseph O’Brien has won three of the eight races to hold a 40 point lead in the Jockey of the Series table with 75 points.
O’Brien senior is on course for a British Classic clean sweep if he can win the Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster on 15 September – a likely target for Camelot if his owners decide to try to make him the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1970.
Camelot won the Investec Derby by an impressive five lengths, coming from the rear of the field to power clear of his stablemate Astrology after he collared the long team leader just inside the final furlong. Main Sequence ran a great race to pip Astrology on the line for second place.
St Nicholas Abbey, meanwhile, won the Diamond Jubilee Coronation Cup for the second year in succession in similar come-from-behind style to Camelot, defeating last month’s Sportingbet Yorkshire Cup winner, Red Cadeaux, who ran a fine race over a distance that is probably just short of his best, by four and a half lengths.
St Nicholas Abbey, who also won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, could run next in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on 20 June and then the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on 21 July, both middle distance races in the QIPCO British Champions Series.
