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Racing: Redemption day for the new Nijinsky

The Derby: Hawk Wing, the dream horse of O'Brien's empire, ready to lay ghost of Newmarket and chase a legend

Sue Montgomery
Sunday 02 June 2002 00:00 BST
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One version of the dream of Pegasus incarnate that drives this sport slipped away in the daylight reality of a poor draw at Newmarket last month. Hawk Wing flew in the 2,000 Guineas, but not fast enough, and the first leg of the Triple Crown was lost by a diminishing neck.

The colt was the moral victor but it was his stablemate Rock Of Gibraltar's name which went in the record books. The conflicting messages engendered by the result would have put your average computer way beyond rebooting but amid the turmoil of implications their trainer Aidan O'Brien's synapses continued to function.

He had just become the first for 62 years to train the first two home in that particular Classic but the horses were perceived as the wrong way round; Hawk Wing was 6-4 favourite and Rock Of Gibraltar 9-1. Both represented the Coolmore stallion station that feeds, and vice versa, the O'Brien-run Ballydoyle training operation, but the winner was the one that carried the outside colours, those of Sir Alex Ferguson. O'Brien, his wife and father-in-law had bred Rock Of Gibraltar but Hawk Wing was his baby.

The compensations for his losing the race were there and evident. But in his heart of hearts O'Brien was surely saddened. For Hawk Wing, the imperious, was the one whom he had paid the ultimate accolade of comparison with Nijinsky. Hawk Wing, the proud, was to be the colt capable of bringing another Triple Crown back to Co Tipperary 32 years on. The Derby, the premier Classic, awaits on Saturday but in the event of success there will always be that niggling regret for the race that got away.

Happily for his sanity, O'Brien does not dwell unduly on yesterday, recognising the importance of today and tomorrow. His philosophy is that of anyone, however competitive, playing in an arena where luck, good or ill, can override judgement and preparation. In the home of his greatest rivals they say "Inshallah". O'Brien says "God willing".

"The Guineas for Hawk Wing was just not meant to be," he said last week after watching the colt complete a routine morning's exercise, before adding in frustration: "Trust me to open my big mouth."

The Triple Crown may be gone, but the comparisons with Nijinsky, whose bronze image stands at the gates of Ballydoyle, are not out of the way and may prove justified on Saturday. As an individual, Nijinsky had a magnificent physical presence and that majestic extra that is sometimes called "the look of eagles". Hawk Wing has it too; even without knowing his colour and markings – a rich mahogany with the faintest white flicker on his forehead and two white socks behind – the eye is drawn to him, in a herd of bay horses, by that indefinable electricity. "He has always had it," said O'Brien. "Even before he started to work seriously last year we felt he was something special."

But however great his admiration for Hawk Wing, O'Brien is ever the pragmatist and the colt will not be his establishment's only runner in the 223rd Derby. He will be accompanied to Epsom by High Chaparral, who goes to the fray with rock-solid credentials, and a highly regarded, once-raced, winning maiden, Louisville.

"I would run more if I could," he said, "it's what they are bred and bought to do. It never worries me to have three or four or five in a race. And it doesn't harm any horse to be beaten once or twice. They are only flesh and blood. It's the horses that people see running consistently at the top level that make the stallions."

Stallions of the future are what is of prime importance at Ballydoyle. Racing may be a hobby or a triviality to some, but in the golden vale of Co Tipperary that encompasses the twin peaks of Ireland's racing and breeding industries it is intense business conducted on a global scale.

Galileo, last year's Epsom victor and O'Brien's first, stands at Coolmore with 24 others. Giant's Causeway, the so-called iron horse of 2000, is one of 20 residents at Ashford, the Kentucky arm of the empire. Danehill, sire of Rock Of Gibraltar, is one of a growing band to annually shuttle down under for the southern hemisphere mating season and is the top sire in Australia.

The figures stack up. Just one or two star stallions, and all the investment is repaid. At the age of 21 Sadler's Wells, 11 times European champion, is nearer the end than the beginning of his stud career but for the past decade or so a conservative estimate of his earning capacity would be 150 mares each spring at £150,000 a time.

At Ballydoyle the daily routine is geared towards encouraging the equine athletes to relax physically and mentally and the sight of 30 laid-back three-year-old colts picking grass together at close quarters is testament to its efficacy. Their trainer, however, does begin to feel the tension at this time of year. "Every second of every minute is important and of course there are times when I'm anxious," he said.

"With a horse like Istabraq, no lives were lost if he got beat," he added. "But the Derby, that's different. There's only one, and you get only one shot at it. It's competitive, it's tough, you need a horse that can handle the terrain, the ground, the occasion, and you need luck. It's the ultimate test. But there is more than just the race on the day at stake."

At the age of 32, not yet 10 years in the job, O'Brien is already rewriting the record books. No less a judge of youthful talent and development than Ferguson has noted his remarkable intensity and self-posession.

Back to che sera, sera. "In Hawk Wing and High Chaparral we have two very eligible colts," said O'Brien. "If one wins, he wins. If he doesn't, he doesn't. Whatever happens, we'll accept it. I actually find it easier to sleep after a day when things have gone bad. When it's gone well I want to stay awake, to make it last as long as I can."

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