The most successful horse racing operation in Europe has mistakenly taken two well-backed horses out of the first English Classic due to “computer error” and left the ante-post betting market for the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket next month in turmoil.
Aidan O’Brien says Albert Einstein and Gstaad were mistakenly removed from the race and has told the Racing Post: “There was a blip on the computer. Something happened, the computer went bananas and took out a couple of horses that weren’t meant to be taken out. We are hoping to get them back in and could do with a bit of common sense being applied.
“The people here in the office were trying to take the horses out of the Dante, but the Guineas flashed up instead and that button was pressed. They were pressing for the Dante, but as they were pressing the Guineas flashed up. They weren’t meant to be taken out of the Guineas and we are working on getting them back in.”
The much-vaunted Albert Einstein headed ante-post lists for the Rowley Mile Classic prior to his disappointing reverse in Saturday’s Gladness Stakes at the Curragh, after which the Ballydoyle handler suggested his charge could revert to sprinting but a final decision on his Newmarket participation would be made in due course.
Gstaad, winner of the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at the end of his two-year-old campaign, looked well placed to assume the position of O’Brien’s chief hope of winning an 11th 2000 Guineas after pleasing connections in a racecourse gallop at the Curragh on Sunday.
However, he too was scratched from the May showpiece on Tuesday morning.
