Aidan O'Brien has blamed himself again after Expanded became the latest Ballydoyle colt to run poorly in the 2000 Guineas.
After short-priced defeats for Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy in the past two editions of the first Classic of the year, expectations were nowhere near as high in regards to 5/1 shot Expanded on the Rowley Mile on Saturday but, like that pair, he ultimately only beat two rivals home after weakening markedly in the final couple of furlongs.
Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy both famously went on to Classic success in the Betfred Derby at Epsom and the master of Ballydoyle is confident Wootton Bassett colt Expanded, a close second to Shadow Of Light in last year's Dewhurst, will prove his seasonal reappearance run to be all wrong.
"Expanded was my fault," he told Racing TV at the Curragh on Monday. "He probably wasn't prepared properly for the race. I had planned on coming here for this race (Tetrarch Stakes) and I had planned on giving him another piece of work and wouldn't have had him sharp enough for Newmarket.
"They jumped out, he was a little bit slowly away, they went very slow for the first two furlongs and then they sprinted. He just got a little bit lost as they started sprinting which was probably a lack of preparation.
"I'd imagine he'll leave that well behind him. We've had horses run very bad in the English Guineas before, fast ground can catch a horse out if you don't prepare them properly and I'd imagine that's what's happened.
"We'll give him a bit of time before he comes back"
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Expanded's big-race entries at the time of writing are the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes at York, the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, the Betfred Derby at Epsom, for which he is a general 25/1 chance, plus the St James's Palace Stakes and Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. He also has the early entry in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.
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