Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 27 April 2026

Aidan O’Brien will probably be “very happy” – which seems to be his go-to phrase for 2026 – with the way his team are performing, recording a 23 percent strike-rate for the current season with a few of Ballydoyle’s big names having made a winning start.

We won’t talk about Albert Einstein for the moment, but Scandinavia, Charles Darwin, The Lion In Winter and True Love have all started off on the right foot, and who knows how things will turn out for his runners in this weekend’s Guineas?

John and Thady Gosden appear to have a strong team of three-year-olds, including Oxagon, Water To Wine, Yazin and I’m The One, while it looked as if their four-year-old Damysus had also got his act together when he found an eye-catching turn of foot to win the Earl Of Sefton Stakes.

Talking of a turn of foot, that brings me on to the revival in the fortunes of the Aga Khan team under the tutelage of Francis Graffard.

Apart from his current streak of form – nine winners from his last 22 runners at a strike-rate of 41 per cent – if I were O’Brien or a Gosden, I would be seriously concerned about the threat he will pose in our top races.

His team is headed by Calandagan, who looked as good as ever when taking his earnings to nearly £9 million in the Sheema Classic at Meydan. He could have the Cox Plate in his sights later this year. Then, on Sunday last year’s Arc winner Daryz produced a scintillating turn of foot to win the Prix Ganay – the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot is reported to be his midsummer target.

The five-year-old Sibayan won a Group 1 in Germany last autumn and the four-year-old Asmarani is unbeaten in three starts this spring. Like Calandagan, both these horses are geldings, so they’ll be around for a while yet.

The three-year-olds Samangan and Rayif have Group 1 potential and then there was the massive impression that Erdanali left when sweeping through from way off the pace to beat a field of newcomers at Saint-Cloud a few weeks ago. The trainer has rather played down that performance as the son of Caravaggio apparently shows precious little in the mornings.

Graffard has others entered for our major contests – two in the Lockinge, two in the Oaks and four in the Coronation Cup.

My advice would be to take a serious look at everything he runs in the top races, both abroad and here. There may be just a bit of value with most eyes firmly fixed on Coolmore.

Bye for now

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