Aidan O'Brien has new favourites for Derby and 2,000 Guineas after Saint-Cloud stars bring him up to 25 Group 1 winners this year

Aidan O’Brien’s relentless pursuit of a record-breaking end to the year and Classic domination in 2026 moved into an even higher gear at Saint-Cloud on Sunday when two more Group 1 triumphs led to a new Derby favourite in Pierre Bonnard and a market leader for the 2,000 Guineas courtesy of Puerto Rico.

In doing so, the trainer moved to 25 top-level victories for the season, just three shy of his own record, set back in 2017.

It is an unusual two-year-old picture this year and neither colt is shorter than 7-1 for their respective dates with destiny, although both advertised their potential for Epsom and Newmarket in decisive fashion.

In particular, the way Pierre Bonnard and Christophe Soumillon lengthened clear of A Boy Named Susie to land the Criterium de Saint-Cloud by two lengths gave the layers little choice but to replace stablemate Hawk Mountain at the head of the Derby market, just 24 hours after that colt had won the William Hill Futurity at Doncaster.

“Obviously he’s a Derby horse and we’ll start him in a Derby trial and all he should do is get better,” said O’Brien. “He’s a beautiful horse with a long stride and a beautiful mind. And he stays very well so he’s very exciting for next year.”

O’Brien’s most recent winner of this race, Los Angeles, is by the same sire as Pierre Bonnard in Camelot, and the trainer added: “I think he could be even higher quality. Christophe was always raving about this horse. When he rode him at Newmarket he was very taken by him and the same here today. He said he has a lot of class.

“We weren’t sure about [the soft ground] and that’s why it was good to come and see if he would handle the slower ground. They do a beautiful job here with the ground and it was lovely to get another run into him.”

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In one aside to the press huddle following the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, O’Brien was informed that a previous Pierre Bonnard had raced for noted owner and art dealer Daniel Wildenstein, prompting the Ballydoyle maestro to recall a lunch he shared with Wildenstein at Longchamp only a couple of years into his training career.

Having described Pierre Bonnard pre-race as “a war machine”, Soumillon was in no mood to recalibrate his appraisal in the immediate aftermath.

Aidan O'Brien with his quartet of jockeys before the Criterium InternationalCredit: APRH / QUENTIN BERTRAND

“This is just mad, to win two Group 1s on the same day under hands and heels rides,” he said. “On the turn I was very aware I didn’t want to get caught for a turn of foot because he's a horse who can sustain his finishing effort but is still a little bit immature.

“Fortunately we went a decent gallop and he was very comfortable with the rhythm. He takes a little bit of time to get going so I was keen to launch my challenge early. But the way he finished, what joy!”

'Puerto Rico will start in a Guineas'

Earlier on the card O’Brien recorded Group 1 win number 24 for the year when Puerto Rico made virtually all in the Criterium International, showing the step up to a mile from seven furlongs presented no problem when putting a length and three-quarters between himself and Campacite, with Cape Orator a head further away in third.

Coral went 8-1 favourite (from 12) for the 2,000 Guineas, two points clear of the long-absent Albert Einstein and Newmarket winners Bow Echo and Gewan.

Paddy Power were more circumspect, keeping Puerto Rico unchanged at 12-1 after he completed the same Longchamp/Saint-Cloud Group 1 double as Angel Bleu in 2021.

Soumillon was extending his own record number of wins in the race to five, and he said: “He has a lot of talent but he looks around a bit and you have to make sure he concentrates. He was a little bit upset in the stalls but I made sure we got a good start because he’s very happy when he can dominate from the front. He looks like he’ll be a very good horse at a mile next year.”

O’Brien expects the Guineas distance will be Puerto Rico’s starting point in 2026 and while he did not rule out going up in trip in due course, he was keen to underline the son of Wootton Bassett’s speed.

“He’s pacey, he stays and we wanted to see what he would be like over a mile,” he said. “He handles soft ground, although we were thinking of going to the Breeders’ Cup with him, but when Gstaad went to the Breeders’ Cup, we said we’d let him come here.

“He’ll start in a Guineas. He’s a classy horse who I see as a real miler but because he’s so relaxed I think he will get further.”

Betfred Derby (Epsom, June 6)
Betfred: 7 Pierre Bonnard, 10 Hawk Mountain, 14 Benvenuto Cellini, Action, 16 Constitution River, 20 Montreal, 25 bar.

Betfred 2,000 Guineas (Newmarket, May 2)
Betfred: 8 Puerto Rico, 10 Albert Einstein, Bow Echo, Gewan, 12 Gstaad, 14 Constitution River, Hawk Mountain, 16 Benvenuto Cellini, Distant Storm, Publish, 20 bar.

Aidan O'Brien has a stranglehold over the markets for next year's Classics

Aidan O'Brien is closing in on his record of 28 Group 1s in a single yearCredit: Edward Whitaker

Where next in Aidan O'Brien's pursuit of the record?

O'Brien was keen to deflect attention from the inexorable progress he is making towards rewriting his own Group 1 record for a calendar year, observing: "We don’t think too much ever about that, we always think about the horse first and do what we think is the right thing by the horse."

However, with Ballydoyle set to be represented in many of the biggest races left globally before the end of 2025, it appears to be more a case of when, not if, O'Brien reaches and then passes 28 Group and Grade 1 winners.

The Breeders' Cup at Del Mar looks likely to see O'Brien make further inroads, with True Love, Precise and Gstaad all short-priced favourites in the three juvenile Group 1s on turf on Friday.

On Saturday, The Lion In Winter (Mile) and Bedtime Story (Filly and Mare Turf) both have claims, while Minnie Hauk is even money to take the Breeders' Cup Turf following her narrow defeat in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

The final Group 1 in Europe, the Grosser Preis von Bayern at Munich (November 8) has not been a race that O'Brien has traditionally targeted and he would need to supplement a runner this year, while he has no representation in the Melbourne Cup or other Spring Carnival races in Australia.

O'Brien has made five nominations for the Japan Cup (November 30) – a race he is yet to win – with Minnie Hauk and Los Angeles the highest-rated among them, while the four Group 1s which make up the Longines Hong Kong International Races a fortnight later (December 14) have featured plenty of Ballydoyle runners over the last decade.

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