NEWS ROUND-UP:JOHN OXX could be represented by a team of up to four horses in Sunday's Group Three PW McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown as this year's Derby countdown gets into full swing.
The Ballysax has a fine Epsom pedigree, having thrown up both of Aidan O’Brien’s Derby heroes, Galileo and High Chaparral, and it also provided a classic kick-off for Oxx’s superstar Sinndar nine years ago, even though he was beaten for the only time in his career in the race.
Both trainers are again heavily represented on Sunday with O’Brien having six of the 18 entries and Oxx four, headed by the Aga Khan’s colt Mourayan who is currently a 25 to 1 shot in ante-post lists for Epsom.
“If all four stay well, then they will run. There are so few alternatives for these kind of horses that it’s no surprise there is likely to be such a good field,” said Oxx yesterday.
“Space Telescope bruised a foot last week but is sound again and we will work him just to make everything is okay. I would imagine Mick (Kinane) will ride Mourayan, who is rated 111 and has good form. Fran Berry will probably be on Vitruvian Man, who is rated a couple of pounds lower and we will see about the other two,” the Curragh trainer added.
O’Brien has landed the Ballysax five times but Yeats was his last winner in 2004. His entry looks to be headed this time by the unbeaten Fame And Glory, who won last year’s Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud in France.
He is the shortest of Sunday’s possibles in the Derby betting at 20 to 1 but also in the frame for Sunday from Ballydoyle are Masterofthehorse and Malibu Bay, who won his sole start at Navan as a juvenile.
“They are all possibles at the moment,” O’Brien said yesterday. “But they all won’t run.”
Jim Bolger has already described Gan Amhras as his Derby horse for 2009 and the Galileo colt, runner-up in the Goffs Million, features among the Ballysax entry with his stable companions Toraidhe and Fergus McIver.
Mark Johnston’s Saint Arch is a sole cross-channel possible for the race. The ground at Leopardstown was officially “good” yesterday but there is an unsettled forecast for the east coast area this week.
O’Brien was out of luck with his first runners in France last weekend but will be hoping for better luck with his first British starters at Newmarket today as Rockhampton lines up for the €449,000 Tattersalls Timeform Trophy and Drumbeat, runner-up to Fame And Glory at Saint-Cloud last Autumn, takes his chance in the Listed Fielden Stakes.
There was a welcome upbeat bulletin yesterday on the progress of the injured jockey Matt O’Connor who spent a week in a coma at Cork University Hospital after sustaining head injuries in a fall at Thurles.
“There has been significant progress in the last week. He is out of intensive care and is going the right way,” said the Turf Club’s former chief medical officer, Dr Walter Halley.
