Ol’ Man River Starts Epsom Derby Talk With Maiden Win

One of the most highly touted European horses to come along in several years, Ol’ Man River, justified the hype–at least in his debut race at The Curragh on Sunday. The Coolmore Partners owned colt for which they paid €2.85m at Goffs last year earned an almost effortless maiden victory against a field of forgettable challengers.

Ol’ Man River is from the last full crop of foals produced by Montjeu and is the son of son of dual 1,000 Guineas winner Finsceal Beo. It was that impressive pedigree that motivated the Coolmore group to break the bank for the colt who was being touted as an Epsom Derby contender even before he’d run a competitive race.

On Sunday he did nothing to dissuade that talk–trained by Aidan O’Brien with his son Joseph aboard Ol’Man River got his career off to an impressive start with a 3/4 length win in an 8 furlong event. He likely could have won by much more but his rider asked very little of him choosing to keep him in ‘cruise control’ throughout.

His trainer sounded almost as if the victory was a foregone conclusion as he noted: “It looks a good solid race and he travelled very strongly. He had to get tired going that gallop first time but he cruised into the lead.”

O’Brien continued to insist that he’ll be brought along slowly, at least during his two year old campaign: “We’ll take our time with him and won’t be in any panic. The good thing about him is he’s a strong traveller and seems to have plenty of pace. Looking at today, he wouldn’t mind going back to seven furlongs.”

Ol’Man River is already a factor in 2015 Epsom Derby betting. He’s now as high as a #4 choice in the race at some bookmakers who are offering a price of 16/1 on the youngster. That’s the same price as Gleneagles and behind John F. Kennedy (12/1) and Highland Reel (10/1). Considering that Ol’Man River is being considered so strongly after only one race it’s a distinct possibility that the Epsom Derby betting odds will have him as the race favorite once he gets a couple more races under his belt.