All eyes were on the returning Pierre Bonnard in Sunday's G3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes, but it was another of Ballydoyle's sons of Camelot who stepped forward into the Derby picture in Christmas Day. While the former showed how short of a peak he was in a lethargic seventh, last year's G3 Eyrefield Stakes winner delivered under Wayne Lordan to cause an 11-1 upset at the chief expense of another stablemate in Endorsement (Wootton Bassett).Aidan O'Brien had warned before the established Derby trial that last year's Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Pierre Bonnard would need the comeback and could be “vulnerable” and that proved the case, with Ryan Moore unable to make an impact in the straight. “The race broke into two halves and was a little bit stop-start,” the Ballydoyle conditioner explained. “Ryan said he would have preferred to be handier and was in on the bad ground. He gave two blows and we thought that would happen. I was just worried that all the horses are needing it badly and having a blow or two, more than I expected.”“Ryan's horse will leave the race behind him,” he stated. “We got the run into him and he'll definitely come back for the Derby Trial next month. We decided that if he was going to the Derby he needed two runs beforehand, win, lose or draw and we'll assess him properly the next day.”Christmas Day, a son of Sea The Stars' Flower Bowl fourth Beauly, is bred to relish all of the mile-and-a-half of the Blue Riband and was showing how much he had come forward during the winter. “He's a smart horse, very straightforward and uncomplicated,” O'Brien added. “He's been floating along there under the radar the whole time, he had a temperature when he was going to go to France last year and he'll stay a mile and a half.”Big shake-up in the Derby market incoming! Christmas Day picks up where he left off last term by winning the Ballysax Stakes but current Derby favourite Pierre Bonnard couldn't justify his short odds. @LeopardstownRC pic.twitter.com/TbHPuFMdaZ— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 12, 2026The post ‘He’s A Smart Horse Who’s Been Under The Radar’: Christmas Day Earns O’Brien’s Respect appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.