Relief for Aidan O'Brien as Lillie Langtry makes him a winner again

Even on an overcast afternoon, Aidan O'Brien's sunglasses were firmly in place, but you did not need to peer into his eyes to feel the relief as Lillie Langtry gave him his first winner of the week. She was a length and a quarter too good for Gile Na Greine in the Group One Coronation Stakes and could mark a return to form for Ballydoyle after an unusually slow start to the campaign. O'Brien did not send a single runner to the Royal meeting on Wednesday and had saddled 16 horses without success before this victory. Lillie Langtry did not look like the representative of an out-of-form stable, though, as Johnny Murtagh brought her from mid-division to take a decisive lead a furlong out. The punters, too, had kept faith with O'Brien, sending the winner off favourite at 7-2, while Gile Na Greine was a 25-1 chance despite having finished third in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket last month. Jacqueline Quest, disqualified and placed second after passing the post in front in the Newmarket Classic, was third home in the colours of Noel Martin. "It's a relief for everybody, because everybody puts so much into it," O'Brien said. "To be part of the whole thing and to keep the whole thing going, we have to have results. "Our horses were slow to come to hand this year, so we were always a little bit on the back foot. Everyone else's horses were coming that little bit quicker than we were. Our horses were running well and not getting beaten very far, which was encouraging, but it's great to be back. "You can only pedal so fast, because if you pedal too hard, the chain will come off. We were trying to pedal as fast as we can without the chain coming off and hopefully we might get there eventually." Racecourse rumours had suggested that Lillie Langtry was as good a juvenile filly as O'Brien had ever sent to Ascot before her close second in the Albany Stakes 12 months ago. This success takes her overall record to four from eight, but she looked unlucky in the Irish 1,000 Guineas last month and was also sent to California for the Breeders' Cup last November. Now, it seems she is ready to live up to the high opinion of both trainer and jockey. "She was by far our best filly last year," Murtagh said, "and going to the Breeders' Cup, I was wondering how far we were going to win by. That didn't happen, but she came back well in our Guineas and her home work had been very good. "You get spoiled a bit at Ballydoyle when you're riding Group One winner after Group One winner. It has been a bit testing, but the next race is the most important one." O'Brien and Murtagh went on to complete a double, as Mikhail Glinka, the 2-1 favourite, took the Queen's Vase under an outstanding ride by the Ballydoyle stable jockey, who got up in the final stride. Monterosso, who finished second in a maiden on the all-weather at Lingfield in January, took the King Edward VII Stakes in striking fashion, despite drifting right after hitting the front. At First Sight, runner-up to Workforce in the Derby, was among his opponents, but Johnny Murtagh's mount could not kick clear as he had at Epsom and was swamped soon after the turn for home. "It's one step at a time, but at the same time we've been ambitious with him and pushed him up through the ranks," Mark Johnston, his trainer, said. "He's won a Group Two now and we'll go home and think about the plan. All Frankie said to me when he got off was 'Irish Derby?', so maybe. "This is a horse that ran on the all-weather and you can get a lot of experience there on the tight tracks. When he went to Ripon [in April on his most recent run] in a relatively low-grade race, he was such a green horse and everything went wrong and he still won. That's when we realised that we had a class horse." The Irish Derby is a week on Sunday, so might arrive too soon for Monterosso, who has also been introduced into William Hill's St Leger market at 10-1. Richard Hughes rode his third winner of the week when Memory arrived fast and late to win the latest renewal of the Albany, beating Margot Did with 20 yards to spare. The winner had to make up a great deal of ground in the closing stages and is quoted at 33-1 for next year's 1,000 Guineas. "She's a funny filly," Hughes said. "She's small but she's as good a mover as I've sat on for a while. We've had a good few two-year-old fillies winning this year and she would be head and shoulders above the others."