Why it pays to be brave and look beyond the O'Brien first string

This season Aidan O’Brien is underlining his status as the dominant force in British and Irish Flat racing. The trainer celebrated a third Guineas double earlier this month, and in a number of recent big races when sending out more than one runner his horses have filled the top finishing positions.

Notably, O’Brien enjoyed a one-two in the 1,000 Guineas and saddled the first three in two Derby trials, the Derrinstown Stud and Chester Vase.

The Ballydoyle trainer had four runners in the Chester Vase, and the betting successfully predicted Venice Beach, sent off 5-2 favourite under Ryan Moore, would get the better of his stablemates. However, the market got it wrong with his runners in the 1,000 Guineas with 9-1 Winter denying 5-4 hotpot Rhododendron, and the Derrinstown, when 7-1 winner Douglas Macarthur was the outsider of his three horses.