Anthony Van Dyck heads strong O'Brien team at Breeders' Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. – Led by English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, top Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has another formidable team in three races on Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup program. He could very well add to his totals as one of the event’s leading trainers.

Approaching this year’s Breeders’ Cup, O’Brien had 12 Breeders’ Cup wins, tied with Chad Brown in third place on the all-time list. D. Wayne Lukas led all trainers with 20 wins, followed by Bob Baffert with 15.

Anthony Van Dyck starts in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf at 1 1/2 miles, a race O’Brien has won six times, including four times this decade.

Anthony Van Dyck might be O’Brien’s best chance from five runners on Saturday, although he is winless in three starts since winning the English Derby on June 1. Anthony Van Dyck was second in the Irish Derby on June 29, 10th in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on good-to-soft turf in July, and third behind stablemates Magical and Magic Wand in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Sept. 14.

“We’re very happy with him,” O’Brien said outside of the quarantine stable on Thursday morning.

“He only had one little blip on bad ground in the King George and I shouldn’t have ran him. All his other form is excellent.”

Anthony Van Dyck was under consideration for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Oct. 6, but did not travel to that race because of soft turf conditions. The turf at Santa Anita on Saturday will be firm.

“The quick ground, the trip, and the draw, everything looks right for him,” O’Brien said. “We would have went to the Arc if the ground was nice, but it wasn’t.”

Owned by the Coolmore syndicate, Anthony Van Dyck has won 5 of 12 starts, including four stakes. The English Derby was run at 1 1/2 miles, the same distance as the $4 million BC Turf.

O’Brien’s other runners on Saturday are the longshot Mount Everest in the BC Turf, Fleeting and Just Wonderful in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, and Circus Maximus in the BC Mile.