Joseph O'Brien reveals Irish Guineas target for National Stakes star Al Riffa with Derby bid unlikely

Derby fancy Al Riffa, who had been as short as 12-1 for Epsom on June 3, is unlikely to tackle the Classic and will instead be kept over shorter distances, said Joseph O'Brien.

The trainer is not convinced that Al Riffa will need the Derby trip of a mile and a half and says that the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh on May 27 has been has pencilled in as the Group 1 winner's first assignment.

It comes after a stellar juvenile campaign which culminated in a dominant display in the Group 1 National Stakes in September. 

O'Brien's colt ran over seven furlongs on all three starts last season, winning twice, and the trainer noted that the son of Wootton Bassett could go over a mile and a quarter after the Curragh.

"He is obviously our flagship horse going into this season and the plan is to go straight to the Irish Guineas," said O'Brien. "At the moment what I’m thinking is going for another race over a mile after the Curragh, then maybe look to go a mile and a quarter rather than going a mile and a half.

"I don’t know if he would stay a mile and a half. If he could carry his speed at that trip he would be an exceptional horse. I don’t think he would be going for a Derby as I don’t see him as a real stayer, he shows speed in his races and in his training."

O'Brien, who rode the winner of the Irish Guineas three years in succession from 2011 to 2013, has already had domestic Classic success with 2018 Irish Derby winner Latrobe and in Britain with Galileo Chrome in the 2020 St Leger. 

Joseph O'Brien: "I don’t see him as a real stayer"Credit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

Al Riffa provided him with his second National Stakes winner having been supplemented for the race after impressing in a Curragh maiden, and it proved money well spent as he beat subsequent Group 1 winner Proud And Regal by one and a quarter lengths.

O'Brien said: "I don’t think I’ve had a better two-year-old. He’s a beautiful, strong horse and has a big frame. Thunder Moon won the National Stakes but this guy is physically the opposite to him.

"Dylan [Browne McMonagle] will ride him. We didn’t have him entered in the National Stakes originally as we always had it in our minds to handle him tenderly as a two-year-old, but he ran really well first time out, so we came back to the Curragh to give him a chance to be a National Stakes horse.

"He won very easy, so he put himself in the picture rather than us putting him in there. The form of the National Stakes is definitely working out as well."

Above The Curve is another candidate from the yard who won at Group 1 level last season when landing the Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp over 1m2f, then going on to win the Group 2 Blandford Stakes at the Curragh. The four-year-old filly is gearing up for another productive campaign.

"She is one of our top horses going into the season," said O'Brien. "She has the option of the Prix Ganay, the Alleged Stakes at the Curragh, or a fillies' Group 2 at York. She’ll start off in one of those and probably the Pretty Polly would be a first half of the season target for her. She should be at least as good this year as she was last year."

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