Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 23 March 2026

Aidan O’Brien’s Open Day for the Press took place last week and, as always, it made for fascinating viewing.

He talked at length about every horse on display, hardly drawing breath, with an endearing, almost childlike enthusiasm. Every spring he highlights his star prospect, drawing on superlatives regardless of how those that have come before have performed.

Of course he is not just the trainer. He is the popular face of the Coolmore operation and so he has to be mindful that a wrong word could jettison the future of a filly or colt in the paddocks. You’ll seldom see or read, for example, any indication of a respiratory problem with a horse trained at Ballydoyle.

This year his tip for the top is Albert Einstein, a colt who was originally named Mars but that was upgraded to Albert Einstein by Sue Magnier as word of his talent came through to her.

From what I could tell from the screen, the son of Wootton Bassett is a strong powerful colt. He weighed 540kg at two … I gather the average is around 450kg … but a sprained joint kept him away from Royal Ascot and off for the remainder of the season. The trainer assured the assembled company that he has made a full recovery.

This all sounds very promising but I’m not sure that I saw anything that special from his two runs last season.

Aidan used the word ‘rapid’ on a number of occasions when talking about him, but if you look at his performances at Naas and the Curragh, on both occasions he took a while to assert his superiority.

On his debut he took two furlongs to pass Evening Blues and 15 days later in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes he required firm driving from Ryan Moore, having been blocked in, before taking the lead well inside the final furlong.

Furthermore, he was keen from the outset on both starts, which doesn’t augur well for his prospects of staying a mile.

As for the form, as I have outlined in our Racehorse Database, the runner-up at Naas is now rated  84 and the third 49. The Marble Hill worked out better, with Power Blue holding his form well at a high level, culminating in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. The third Andab ran fourth in the Coventry and won a Listed contest in October.

Regarding the colt’s stamina, the word I would use to describe Aidan’s view would be ‘guarded.’ As a son of Wootton Bassett, there is no problem with the mile, but his dam ran just three times, all at two, winning over 5f on her debut and she was then well beaten in the Queen Mary before finishing second in a 6f Group 2. She is related to milers from the family of Giant’s Causeway.

Incidentally, she wore a tongue-tie on the last two occasions and it would be interesting to learn why she ran just three times.

Albert Einstein is expected to go directly to the Guineas so his connections will hope that he will have matured enough to settle. Then there is the doubt about the mile and the time he took to lengthen away. From what I’ve seen he’s a galloper, not a quickener.

I’m currently updating my Classics Ante-Post tag on our Racehorse Database, together with other horses of interest.

I’ll be back next week with more observations and points of interest.

Bye for now

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