Aidan O'Brien feels like the pilot of “an aeroplane waiting to land” amid the uncertainty wrought on the 2020 Flat season by the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been no racing in Ireland since March 24 - one week after the sport was suspended in Britain.
Severe doubts hang over the Curragh’s Irish Guineas weekend, scheduled for 23 and 24 May, while the British Horseracing Authority’s “best-case scenario” for the Covid-19-ravaged campaign is that the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas will be run at the start of June, with the Derby - for which O’Brien’s Mogul is the 8-1 second favourite - and the Oaks to take place at the beginning of July.
The crisis has brought with it a fog of uncertainty for trainers and even the Ballydoyle empire - from which O'Brien has sent out the winners of 35 British Classics - is not immune.
“We’re just cruising along in second gear - ticking over,” O’Brien said yesterday of his three-year-olds’ current training regime.
“Obviously, they have to be at a certain level, without getting too close to where you want to be.
“That’s the only way we can take it and then hopefully we can make a plan in two to three weeks.
“Everyone has provisional dates - they have been keeping everyone up to speed as much as possible - and it depends on a lot of things.
“That’s what we’re doing at the moment. At a holding stage - like an aeroplane waiting to land.
“I don’t think any human being alive has seen anything like this in any part of the world - incredible, extraordinary times.”
The governing bodies of Europe’s major racing nations have yet to make a ruling on whether overseas runners will be permitted to compete when the sport does resume later in the summer.
But O’Brien believes the top races should be open to all challengers - for the good of the breed.
“That’s not for me to decide, but I don’t think that could work,” the trainer said of a prospective ban on travelling.
“I think the Classics and the Group Ones have to be opened up - it’s important for the international Pattern Committee.
“The reality of all races is that they are based on the Classics - 100 per cent.”
