Camelot, 2012’s dominant classic performer, returns to action for the start of a four-year-old campaign at the Curragh today still with something to prove. The fact he lines up for the Group Three High Chaparral Mooresbride Stakes at all is indicative of that.
There were plenty sceptics last year willing to believe we had seen the last of a colt acclaimed by Aidan O’Brien as the best he has ever had through his hands when Camelot finished out of the money in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Camelot after all is a two- year-old champion who landed the Guineas, and both the Epsom and Curragh Derbies, before just failing to become the first horse in 42 years to complete the Triple Crown.
And yet Camelot is back for more, in the mix to establish if he was simply best of a bad three-year-old lot in 2012, or really the ultimate Ballydoyle superstar.
He faces four in today’s 10 furlong event, including Parish Hall.
“He obviously had a little setback at the backend but he’s been in Coolmore all winter and came back in great shape and I’ve been delighted with him since,” O’Brien said of Camelot yesterday.
