Epsom Derby Preview:It was the late Newmarket trainer Paul Kellaway who memorably admitted to feeling like Custer when his more powerful colleagues pulled their huge strings out every morning. Frankie Dettori could well feel similar emotions in today's Derby when he has to face down a mammoth, eight-strong "tribe" from Aidan O'Brien's stable.
Never before has the world's most famous flat race seen such a numerically strong challenge from a single source, and already there have been suggestions that team tactics could be used to try to overturn Dettori's red-hot favourite, Authorized.
Dettori rather memorably accused the Irish team of such tactics in last year's Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot after riding Librettist behind George Washington - an accusation that provoked O'Brien into describing the Italian superstar as acting like a spoilt child.
Certainly if Authorized can't finally end Dettori's Derby losing streak, there could be a rather large Mediterranean pout on view, as Peter Chapple-Hyam's horse looks to tick all the boxes for a probable Derby winner.
As a Group One-winning two-year-old who can act on a softer surface, and who dotted up by four lengths in one of the best Derby trials in the Dante, it is hard to crab Authorized's credentials.
They certainly seem enough for him to start an odds-on favourite, but such apparent good things have failed Epsom's unique test before.
In the last 40 years, Sir Ivor (4 to 5) in 1968 and Shergar (10 to 11) in 1981 have won, but three others have failed: El Gran Senor (8 to 11) was famously edged out in 1984, Tenby (4 to 5) managed only 10th in 1993 and Entrepreneur (4 to 6) ran only fourth 10 years ago.
The Lingfield Trial winner Aqaleem may be the second favourite with most firms to take advantage of any slip up, but the conviction seems to be growing that it is Team Ballydoyle who will provide the biggest threat to Authorized.
With Arabian Gulf ruled out through injury, and a late decision about Strategic Prince to be made today, O'Brien may yet have almost half the field as he tries for a third blue riband after Galileo (2001) and High Chaparral (2002).
The general view appears to be that Archipenko is the Ballydoyle number one, and it looks significant that Michael Kinane sticks with the Derrinstown Trial winner rather than Soldier Of Fortune and Admiralofthefleet, who won the Vase and the Dee Stakes at Chester.
The ground, however, does look to have gone for Admiralofthefleet, but it also appears to have resulted in a switch from tomorrow's Prix du Jockey Club for Eagle Mountain, who was a wide-margin Beresford winner on soft ground last year.
John Murtagh has a fourth Derby in his sights and Eagle Mountain ran a fine fifth in the Newmarket Guineas on his last start. But there must be a slight concern that the furlong and a half shorter French option was the original target for the Rock Of Gibraltar colt, whose pedigree also raises doubts about him lasting the mile and a half.
If Archipenko finds himself fighting out the finish, then it would be no surprise to see Yellowstone, runner-up in the Derrinstown, close by. But he too is not guaranteed to last the trip.
Significantly, there is no such concern about Pat Smullen's mount Mahler, who scored over the trip at Gowran and looks to be rapidly improving. He has never run on worse than good, but he is out of a Rainbow Quest mare, which gives him a chance.
Certainly, it looks a shrewder play to have a small interest each way on the likes of Mahler at almost 50 to 1 odds than tanking into an odds-on favourite.
It's hard to escape from Authorized as the most likely winner, but in a race and on a track that has found out legendary names such as Dancing Brave, El Gran Senor and Tudor Minstrel during its 227-year history, only the fearless, or the foolish, will want to play at the odds.
After all, Custer thought he was a heavy favourite at Little Bighorn.
