Vodafone Derby failure Aristotle is to undergo surgery to remove cysts on his epiglottis, his trainer Aidan O'Brien has revealed yesterday. The son of Sadler's Wells was a strongly-fancied 5 to 1 third favourite for the premier Classic at Epsom, but was a disappointing 10th to fellow Irish raider Sinndar, beaten a total of 18 lengths by the winner.
A statement from Ballydoyle read: "I knew his run in the Derby was too bad to be true and Michael Kinane said that he stopped so quickly that there must be something wrong, so we had him examined and the vets found the problem.
"Dr Paul Thorpe is flying in from America to perform the procedure and all going well he should be back in work before the end of the year."
Aristotle won both his starts as a two-year-old - a Galway maiden and the Group One Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.
He was also first past the post on his first run of the season, the Prix Greffulhe at Longchamp in April, but hung badly left and was demoted to third.
Twenty-nine year old Pat McLoughlin, who notched up fifty-six wins in the saddle over a four-year period in Britain, recorded his first victory since returning home over two years ago, when he teamed up with Monty Fox, trained by his father John, to win the Termonfeckin Handicap Hurdle at Dundalk last evening .
"I rode for John White in England and one of the reasons I returned home was to help my father with the training at his Co Leitrim yard," said the winning rider.
Warren O'Connor was taken to hospital after banging his left-knee coming out of the stalls on Heart Of The Ocean, which, under the circumstances, did well to fill the third berth behind easy odds-on scorer Patruel in the Annagassan Maiden over nine furlongs. It was later reported Wexford-born O'Connor had "a soft tissue injury."
Sent off at 4 to 7, the winning daughter of Rainbow Quest drew steadily clear from the two furlong pole under Niall McCullagh to score by five-and-half lengths for Sheikh Mohammed and John Oxx.
Top-weight Dromhall Lady and Danny Grant battled back gamely inside the final furlong to justify favouritism for Pat Flynn in the Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Handicap before Dublin rider Mick Hussey brought his career tally to six when scoring on Declan Gillespie's 12 to 1 shot Fraser Carey in the penultimate Castlebellingham Handicap.
