Aidan O’Brien’s Kentucky Derby contender Mendelssohn is set to travel to Churchill Downs on Monday.

Mendelssohn, the huge last start winner of the UAE Derby at Meydan, is currently 9/2 joint favourite with Justify, the impressive Santa Anita Derby winner trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.

“He’ll travel over on Monday and go into quarantine. He’ll work on the track on Thursday and Friday,” O’Brien reported.

“Everything has gone well so far.”

O’Brien was at Churchill Downs in 2011 when Master Of Hounds contested the Kentucky Derby so is well aware of the cauldron Mendelssohn will be going into next weekend.

“It’s a very different atmosphere to what we’d be used to here in Europe. It can get very loud in the parade out onto the track” O’Brien said.

“We’d be very hopeful he’ll deal with it though.

“We are confident he can get away fast. He has shown he has the pace to lay up early.

“He broke well in Del Mar last season, he broke well at Dundalk this season and he broke well again in Dubai, so we’d be confident he can do the same out there.”

O’Brien also confirmed Deauville, Seahenge and Threeandfourpence are likely to travel to Churchill Downs with Mendelssohn to race on the undercard.

Mendelssohn’s jockey Ryan Moore is heading for Churchill Downs instead of the Guineas meeting at Newmarket next Saturday, forsaking rides in the first classics of the UK season.