By reputation Australians are easy-going and if Australia the horse spent the winter fretting about being described by Aidan O’Brien as “the best we’ve ever had” then the Guineas and Derby favourite didn’t show it when working after racing at the Curragh yesterday.

In the middle of a 40-plus team of horses O’Brien brought to HQ from Ballydoyle, the chestnut son of Galileo and Ouija Board worked about seven furlongs in the middle of a smaller group of nine horses that also included the Dewhurst winner War Command, and hardly stood out.

With seven weeks to the 2,000 Guineas in Newmarket, fireworks were hardly likely on very soft ground, but Australia’s heady status did become immediately obvious after the series of workouts featuring many of O’Brien’s leading hopes for 2014 wound up.

First of all the normally cautious champion trainer, who has had some of the world’s best horses through his hands in the last decade and a half, didn’t hesitate to nominate the lesser-regarded French 2,000 Guineas as a possible target for War Command should both colts get to the first part of May sound and healthy.

More frivolously, or perhaps not, O’Brien showed no willingness to accept an invitation to row back on last autumn’s “best ever” quote about a colt who on bare form has just won a Group Three, even indulging in a little teasing.

"He's the second best horse we've ever had. Only the only horse better wasn't a flat horse!" he smiled, referring to the triple Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq. But in terms of Australia it was noticeable how O'Brien didn't want to repeat last year's assertion, but still stressed: "It wasn't made up – of course he has to go and do it now."

Testing ground
The plan is for Australia to go straight to the Guineas, the pattern O'Brien has followed with all six of his previous winners of the first Classic of the season, including Camelot in 2012. And if anything came out of the yesterday's gentle workout it was a determination not to run Australia on testing ground.

“Joseph (O’Brien) says he hates soft ground. If you see the trainer running him on that, shout at him,” said the trainer. “I’m still getting the blame for running Camelot in the Derby here.”

Newmarket’s 1,000 Guineas will be a first stop of the season for Tapestry who looked noticeably forward in her piece of work yesterday but O’Brien indicated she is an exception.

“Going by what we saw today, we’re a good bit behind,” he said. “I always think ours are fit until they come racing and we see everyone else’s. But sometimes it’s better to start slow and the horses seem to come to themselves then later.”

If O'Brien drew a blank in the actual racing yesterday, one of his main rivals, Dermot Weld, was quick out of the blocks, securing a big race double less than two weeks after Silver Concorde's Cheltenham Bumper victory.

While the Ballydoyle battalion limbered up just a stones-throw from his yard, Weld kept his own big Classic hope for 2014, Free Eagle, under wraps at home and is in no rush to get the Derby hope out either.

“He hasn’t been asked to do anything special but he’s in great form. I don’t think he will reappear until the Derrinstown Trial (May 11th) We’re in no rush with such a good-actioned horse,” said the trainer.

In fact Silver Concorde will be out before his three-year-old stable companion, with Weld reporting: “We’re looking at the Grade One bumper at Punchestown.

“The other horse we ran at Cheltenham, Vigil, needs a cut in the ground and he might appear at Fairyhouse, and there’s a race at Punchestown for him too if the going is suitable.”

The ground appeared more than suitable for Weld's seven runners yesterday and although Rousayan was an expensive beaten favourite in the maiden won by Iveagh Gardens, the early wellbeing of the Curragh trainer's string was obvious.

Gutsy defeat
Vote Often secured a valuable Group Three pot in the Park Express Stakes while Stuccodor got rewarded for consistency with a gutsy defeat of That's Plenty in the €100,000 Lincolnshire. "This horse deserved to win a big pot. He's been such a tough and consistent performer and he loves that ground," said Weld who described the testing going as key to Vote Often's narrow defeat of the English raider Odeliz.

“She’d been working so well that she played herself onto the team for this race. And the key is she loves that ground. It’s the reason she’s out early,” he said.

“She’s beautifully bred and it’s great to get a Group win early. She’ll be considered for the Irish Guineas but she’ll appreciate ease in the ground.”

Pat Smullen had to give best in the Madrid Handicap though as topweight Go For Goal came up a length short of Fly To The Moon who completed a double for jockey Wayne Lordan.

Earlier Lordan had an easy win in the six-furlong handicap as Tommy Stack’s Great Minds routed his opposition.

"He's always gone well at home but is ground-dependant," said Stack's son and assistant, Fozzy. "If we get a wet summer he'll be alright!"

The opening two-year-old race of the turf season went to Kevin Prendergast’s Beach Belle who comprehensively beat Bwana with the favourite Alertness only fourth.

The latter's trainer Jim Bolger did, however, land the concluding three-year-old maiden, as Answered made a winning debut in Sheikh Mohammed's colours.