Aidan O’Brien is surprised by the rapid progress of his ‘unusual’ stable star Paddington as he targets yet another Group 1 success at Goodwood, writes Tom Masters. 

The three-year-old has risen to the very top of the game in an unbeaten 2023, which has included three consecutive Group 1 triumphs – the Irish 2000 Guineas, the St James’s Palace Stakes and the Coral-Eclipse. 

Now O’Brien targets the Qatar Sussex Stakes, the showpiece race on Wednesday at Goodwood, where he is heavily tipped to add a fourth Group 1 win to his crown this year. 

And the Master of Ballydoyle is excited for his versatile steed to show how good he is on the big stage once again. 

“It’s a very prestigious race the Sussex Stakes, it will be the first time for the three-year-old, it is probably for older milers generally,” he said. 

“Right now, he has a lot of pace and it is never a problem for him, we always had this race on his programme really. 

“He is very versatile, he won his first two this year on heavy ground, so we were not really sure about going to The Curragh on soft ground and he handled it no problem at all. 

“We always like when the races are as competitive as they possibly can be, because we always judge horses off them, so we know exactly where we should be going next.” 

After over 30 years at the very top of the game, O’Brien has seen it all but even he has been surprised by how quickly Paddington has developed, entering the winners’ enclosure each time he has raced since a fifth-place finish in his very first start. 

“I hold him in very high regard, he is very natural, a very quick horse, very straight forward, he is a little bit different we think and the way he is progressing from run to run is very unusual,” added O’Brien. 

“From race to race he is doing very well, he is putting on weight from every run, he was much heavier in the Eclipse than he was at Ascot – everyone is very happy with him. 

“He is improving with every run, which is very unusual and he probably is making unusual improvements, we are not looking at that really but every time he runs, he seems to get better and the lads are very happy with him. 

“It is abnormal improvement, we liked him a lot the first day he ran as a two-year-old at Ascot, he ran very ordinarily and suffered from stage fright but give him a little bit of time and he came back and won very impressively at The Curragh after that and then we left him alone. 

“He has physically done very well, everyone loves him but it is unusual how quickly he progresses. 

“Obviously every horse is different, every human being is different, we all carry ourselves differently and that is the way he carries himself. 

“I suppose everything he is doing is different really but what he has done has been incredible, he has improved with every run, I know Ryan (Moore) is very impressed with him all the time and he looks a very serious horse at the moment.” 

He is a little bit different we think and the way he is progressing from run to run is very unusual.

- Aidan O'Brien on Paddington