Aidan O’Brien hopes to see Constitution River return to winning ways in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes on Saturday week but admits there’s "not a guarantee" that he will after his experience in the Juddmonte International.
The winner of the French Derby and Coral-Eclipse was second favourite behind Ombudsman at the Knavesmire but both were to play only support roles behind Item and Almaqam after a race in which the Ballydoyle handler felt plenty went against his charge.
Speaking on Monday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast, he said: “I think what happened at York was I put in the wrong pacemaker. I put in a horse of ours that wasn’t good enough to go forward and make the running. I thought he would, but I was a little naïve in thinking that John’s horse (Devil’s Advocate) would go anyway if we didn’t go but obviously, they didn’t have it in their head to go at all because they didn’t make any attempt to go.
“So because of that Wayne (Lordan, on Hawk Mountain) was left on the inside and he knew that Constitution River needed a lead so he had to go on a horse that’s not a natural leader and because of that he was having to squeeze him along a little too much and because of that they were going too fast. Ryan gave his horse a little dig to come out, he hit the road wrong and latched on and ended up being too handy in a race they were going too fast in.
“John’s pacemaker obviously saw Ryan on the inside, so he kept him company which was obviously his prerogative as well and because of that Ryan was into top gear all the way. When they turned into the straight those good jockeys knew exactly what they were doing. So, they intimidated Ryan a little bit which he was entitled to do and Ryan felt that on his outside so he felt like taking out Constitution River in the straight rather than risk getting boxed in and because of that he ended up getting there too early off too strong a gallop.
“He was there three down after going very fast and burning a lot of juice but that was all part of racing. No jockey should ever leave room on the inside of any horse to get up because that’s jockeymanship and obviously they knew what they were at and were perfectly entitled to do it, but it all went wrong for us. Our horse was doing too much all the way and ended up going on too early. So, he ran a very good race considering but that’s the way it is."
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And the rebuild will begin at Leopardstown.
“Because of all that we have to go back and try to right it the next day and there’s not a guarantee we can do that because he probably didn’t have a great experience. But we’ll try and undo it and try to get it right. We think he’s very good, he’s a very good, strong traveller, we think he stays very well and that little kink that’s in him is part of what makes him good.
“Those good horses are aggressive and when they get into a head-to-head with another horse, they will catch hold because they don’t like getting beat or shoved around. That’s the way it is, what happened, happened. Obviously if he’d have won, we’d have been sitting pretty with big smiles on our faces. We all thought it was a duel between John’s horse, Ombudsman, and our horse, and obviously it went wrong for us totally and John’s horse finished fourth.
“The other two, it set up for them and that’s the way it is. They could meet again and you could get the same result again after we get a good run but we’ll find out the next day but we are definitely trying to right what we think was a wrong but it will be interesting.”
O’Brien admits there is no fixed plan in place for Constitution River after the Irish Champion but he doesn’t expect the son of Wootton Bassett to race on at four.
“Probably for me what he did at York has probably been his best achievement. Everything went wrong. He had no right to finish third at York, what he did normal horses wouldn’t be able to do. He’s probably going to go off to stud because he’s too important not to. He’s big, he’s rangy, he’s lengthy. He’s very masculine and when you’re walking along with him if he decides he wants to go for a bite out of a hedge, he goes for a bite out of a hedge. When you feel that power... when he decides to go, he goes,” he continued.
“Ryan always felt he was an Arc horse; I don’t know whether the lads will want to do that or go back to an English Champion or whatever but he’s definitely different. What we want to see is a strongly-run race and him just to relax, then we’ll see what he can do."
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