'Competition focuses your mind and drives you on, you can't get complacent'

On April Fools' Day you could have backed Stone Age at 50-1 and Changingoftheguard at 66-1 for the Cazoo Derby with bet365. That was just under six weeks ago.

They are 9-4 and 9-2 now and Aidan O'Brien is responsible for four of the top six in the betting. That, of course, is without Luxembourg in the team. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Between them Stone Age and Changingoftheguard had eight goes at winning at two. Neither of them managed to get the job done, not even when they ran in the same Leopardstown maiden last July.

"No, not at all," replied O'Brien when asked whether he was worried that neither won as juveniles. Then we were granted rare access into the mind of the master to find out how these horses can play like an amateur at two and then Messi at three.

Watch again: Stone Age dazzles in Leopardstown Derby Trial

He explained: "We could have made them win at two if we wanted, but we always treat two as an education for three. Stone Age even ran over seven! He had Group form at two, to expose to breeders that he was a very good two-year-old."

Ballydoyle is like a shaken bottle of Bollinger at this time of year, just waiting to be uncorked. We all know there is plenty of fizz inside but we don't yet know what damage it will do. If the last fortnight is anything to go by, we had better prepare to be drenched.

Fourteen winners in 14 days, five from five at Chester, the last four Derby trials have been mopped up and a new favourite for the Oaks and the Coventry have emerged from the purple patch as well. He's had worse weeks has our Aidan.

Luxembourg: 'I don't think Ryan would have had a choice to make if he were fit,' says Aidan O'BrienCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

O'Brien still had to swallow a bitter pill with the loss of Luxembourg from the Derby picture. How does he deal with such high-profile setbacks? It surely must sting given what's at stake?

"It's only stuff," he stressed. "And, stuff doesn't matter. Only a few things matter. I'm disappointed for the lads, but we've done our best. It happened. Yesterday morning the lads said he wants a month or six weeks in the box. It is only a waste of energy thinking about it [the disappointment].

"He's a very good horse, though. I don't think Ryan [Moore] would have had a choice to make if he were fit. He probably has more scope than St Nicholas Abbey had. St Nicholas Abbey ran in the Guineas as well, but he didn't run as well as this lad.

"Luxembourg is very classy. What he did in the Guineas he shouldn't have been able to do. He ended up totally out the back and he still kept coming. For him to do that, it was a very serious run for a middle-distance horse."

That Guineas was dominated by Godolphin and O'Brien admitted the Flat scene has never been more ferociously competitive.

"It focuses your mind," he said of the competition. "Even with our own lads [Joseph and Donnacha]. It's very competitive everywhere. We knew this would happen with our own lads coming on and the others.

"You don't get complacent. You have to get beaten to feel the hurt. It has to hurt. And it does hurt when you get beaten. That's what drives you on. I learn from the boys."

Really? The apprentices are teaching the master new tricks?

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "I can learn a lot from them. There is no substitute for a young mind. That's what I love about them. I would be watching what they would be doing and thinking to myself, 'We could add that to ours'. Joseph is doing plenty different to what we do here.

"There are loads of young trainers coming through everywhere, which is great. It's really competitive. I think we have great young trainers here and in England. There are no easy races anywhere anymore."

O’Brien certainly doesn’t seem to think the Derby will be easily won, but his four main contenders are all by Galileo so he knows they won't shy away from the challenge.

"You saw them in their trials, their heads down. As you push them, they get lower. Star Of India nearly starts crawling. He won't stop. Most horses come up, they don't. They go down on their knees for you, it's very unusual."

It must be unusual for him to have his son as one of his biggest dangers in the Derby, Donnacha's Piz Badile is as short as 13-2 with Ladbrokes, but Daddy O'Brien is getting well used to it.

Piz Badile (far side): Donnacha O'Brien colt a leading Derby contenderCredit: Caroline Norris (racingpost.com/photos)

"We always do our best to win no matter what. Always. But, I'm always happy if they beat us. They are rivals, 100 per cent, but I'm always delighted when we get beaten by them. Believe me, though, there's no inch given anywhere. That's our job."

Despite the installation of floodlights and speedometers on the main gallop at Ballydoyle, O'Brien remains in the dark about the best of his Derby bunch.

"I don't know who the best horse is," he said. "We learn as you learn. You have your own opinion, the speed people have their opinion and we only really find out when they are put together."

They will be put together on the first Saturday in June. Stone Age and Changingoftheguard might have been 66-1 and 50-1 on April Fools' Day but nobody is sneering at their prospects now, that's for sure.

Read these next:

'Ryan will find it hard not to ride Stone Age' - Aidan O'Brien on his Derby team

'We plan to have him back for the autumn' - injured Luxembourg out of the Derby

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