Team O'Brien Takes to the Track

The Aidan O'Brien team of MOUNT NELSON (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar [Ire]) and PLAN (Storm Cat) left the quarantine area for the first time on Friday morning to turn in canters on the Polytrack.

Mount Nelson, a top threat in Saturday's Arlington Million (G1), looked as tremendous as you'd expect from a classy member of the Ballydoyle juggernaut. The big bay has excellent muscle definition and looks positively chiseled. The other physical attribute that stood out to me was his slightly elongated neck – no wonder he was able to score the two biggest victories of his career in photo finishes! As I saw it, Mount Nelson settled into a very easy canter, under a snug hold.

Mount Nelson was a high-quality juvenile who captured the Criterium International (Fr-G1) in just his third career start. Displaying the game professionalism to drive between horses, he knuckled down under pressure to win by a head, ironically enough, from fellow Million contender SPIRIT ONE (Fr) (Anabaa Blue).

That success stamped him as a colt with classic potential, and O'Brien's initial reaction was to aim for either the Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) at Newmarket or the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (Fr-G1), the French Guineas, at Longchamp. Unfortunately, Mount Nelson encountered some setbacks at three and was forced to miss these mile tests. He was not ready to race until the end of the European season in the Champion S. (Eng-G1), but he tired after racing forwardly on the softish ground and did not do himself justice.

Mount Nelson has been steadily rounding into form this year, in the manner that O'Brien horses tend to do. As a result, it would not be wise to judge his first few races too strictly, for he is surely some way better at this stage of the campaign. A troubled fifth, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths, in the one-mile Queen Anne S. (Eng-G1) at Royal Ascot, Mount Nelson returned to take the 1 1/4-mile Eclipse S. (Eng-G1) at Sandown, where he took a while to pick up and just thrust his head in front in the nick of time.

I suspected that Mount Nelson's Eclipse may have looked more workmanlike than impressive because he was rallying on Sandown's stiff, uphill run to the line.

On the other hand, O'Brien's traveling head lad, Pat Keating, doesn't think the terrain at Sandown was a factor. According to Keating, Mount Nelson only just got up because of “the way the race shaped up.”

In any event, the vast expanses of Arlington's turf course should suit the long-striding Mount Nelson perfectly, and he is liable to deploy a sharper turn of foot at this venue. Of course, after the bombshell scratch of the expected pacesetter Sudan (Ire) (Peintre Celebre), the Arlington Million is sure to turn into a tactical affair, with a sedate early tempo leading up to a sprint to the wire. In circumstances like that, anything can happen, but I'm starting to think that Mount Nelson wouldn't necessarily need a solid pace. Although he's proven at 1 1/4 miles at Sandown, Mount Nelson has shown smart form at a mile as well, and that versatility could serve him well in a likely muddled pace scenario.

And looking back on the Eclipse, maybe that's what Team O'Brien wanted after all. Given Ballydoyle's ever-present attention to tactics, I find it significant that there was no pacemaker to set the table for him in the Eclipse. Perhaps the game plan involved a steady pace, and that scenario was exploded when two other horses set sail for the front and rattled off a lively tempo. If that deduction is correct, could that be what Keating meant by "the way the race shaped up?"

It's also worth remembering that O'Brien knows exactly the type of horse who would be best suited by the Million -- after all, he trained Powerscourt (GB), who crossed the wire first in two successive runnings, but was disqualified for interference in the first (2004) before avenging in the second (2005).

A success for Mount Nelson in Arlington's premier race would, in some illogical but nonetheless satisfying way, assuage the sting of his sire Rock of Gibraltar's (Ire) defeat here in the 2002 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1). The mega-talented Rock had won seven straight Group 1 events for O'Brien, eclipsing the old Northern Hemisphere mark of six set by the immortal Mill Reef, before being waylaid by a horrible start and a wide trip in that Breeders' Cup at Arlington. The Rock now has an avenging son on the premises.

In contrast to Mount Nelson, Secretariat S. (G1) hopeful Plan was not as thoroughly captivating. While a fine-looking specimen, the son of 2000 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) queen Spain (Thunder Gulch) got lathered up during his canter on the track. As I watched him pass me by in the stretch, the sophomore was also breathing rather noisily.

Nor does Plan have a resume approaching Mount Nelson's. Eighth behind his brilliant stablemate Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo) in the Two Thousand Guineas, Plan was dropped in class next out, finishing fourth versus older horses in a listed event at the Curragh. He clearly benefited from stretching out to nine furlongs in the Keeneland International S. (Ire-G3) most recently, where he did his best work late to defeat a yeoman group of older horses.

Plan, who has just been acquired by IEAH Stables, will be leaving O'Brien's care after Saturday and joining Richard Dutrow. He may well enjoy the added ground in the 1 1/4-mile Secretariat, but I'll be watching closely tomorrow to see if he lathers up again.