It's not often a Classic victory gets trumped by a Group Three but that's what Galileo managed to do at Leopardstown yesterday when consolidating his position as second favourite for the Epsom Derby.
Rose Gypsy's French 1,000 Guineas success in Longchamp appeared to be greeted as a welcome bonus by the Ballydoyle team but the presence of Aidan O'Brien and John Magnier at the Dublin track testifies to the investment being put in Galileo's Derby potential.
The colt did nothing to harm that chance either and landed the Derrinstown Trial by a length-and-a-half from Exaltation. His time was 3.36 seconds longer for the 10 furlongs than subsequent Derby hero Sinndar last year.
"He has lots of speed and speed is the big thing at Epsom," said O'Brien who summed up the general feeling with: "The dream is alive so far."
Galileo certainly did enough to impress the bookies and Ladbrokes reflected the general mood by cutting the Ballydoyle colt a couple of points to 4 to 1 chance for Epsom behind the 2 to 1 favourite Golan.
Seamus Heffernan, who later scored an Amethyst Stakes win on King Of Tara, had to deliver three smacks of the whip to get Galileo past El Bueno and Exaltation but delivered an upbeat report. "It was a good even gallop and he quickened well but he will stay further," Heffernan said.
"What really pleased me was how every time Seamus asked for an effort, there looked to be loads there. It looks like his mind is in good shape," O'Brien added.
Rayyana's disappointing run (finished distressed) led John Oxx to dismiss the Oaks as a likely target and although he didn't rule Exaltation out of the Derby, he did nominate the Gallinule Stakes as a more probable option for that colt. Speirbehean booked her place in the Entenmann's Irish 1,000 Guineas field with a determined all-the-way defeat of the Godolphin filly Najah in the fillies trial and significantly the pair finished a full seven lengths clear of the third horse.
"She deserves her chance in the Guineas, but she can go any place. I think she will stay a mile-and-a-half," said Speirbhean's trainer Jim Bolger.
O'Brien's apprentice, Colm O'Donoghue, just got touched off in the opener on the odds-on Sophisticat and then suffered a fall from Dream in the fillies trial. But the Co Cork-born rider got on the mark with Ice Dancer who survived a stewards' inquiry to land the mile-and-a-half maiden. But O'Donoghue was handed a three-day ban by the stewards for careless riding.
