Tennessee Stud

That one career win came at Tipperary in September 2024, but it was what followed that really defined him. O'Brien has spoken about how Tennessee Stud won the Criterium de Saint-Cloud despite the heavy, energy-sapping conditions that day, suggesting the performance was better than it looked — the horse did it the hard way. Since then, O'Brien has described him as having "wintered very well" and matured considerably, which for a young horse can be the difference between a good performer and a great one.

The plan from the start of this season was always to skip the early Derby trials and head to Leopardstown in May before taking on Epsom. That's a bold, patient strategy — the kind you only pursue when you genuinely believe you have something special. And O'Brien has been willing to say exactly that. After a run at Longchamp, he called Tennessee Stud "just a very good horse" and floated the idea that his temperament and pedigree could eventually make him a Melbourne Cup contender — one of the world's great long-distance races. That's a significant thing to say out loud.

At his best distances of a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter, he has won 1 from 3 races — roughly one in every three, which is a strong return at that level. He is now returning from a ten-month absence, which always brings uncertainty, but O'Brien has been clear that the timing was deliberate. Recent form shows three placings in a row before that break, so the consistency has been there. The Epsom Derby is the kind of race that sorts out the genuinely elite from the very good, and O'Brien clearly believes Tennessee Stud belongs in that first category.