EPSOM DERBY NEWS:SOME OF Aidan O'Brien's six-strong Investec Derby team will have a final piece of work this morning after which Johnny Murtagh is set to finally decide which of them he will ride at Epsom. Fame And Glory continues to head ante-post betting on the Derby after a total of 13 colts were left in the race at yesterday's confirmation stage.
They include eight Irish-trained horses who look to dominate the race with John Oxx’s Sea The Stars attempting to become the first horse in 20 to complete the Guineas-Derby double. Jim Bolger will be represented by Gan Amhras.
However, despite the unbeaten Fame And Glory heading the market, there remains speculation that Murtagh could end up on board his stable companion Rip Van Winkle. Two other O’Brien trained hopes, Black Bear Island and Masterofthehorse, continue to contract in betting also.
“Some of the Derby horses will do a bit in the morning but not all of them,” O’Brien said yesterday. “As for jockeys we probably won’t know about who rides what until tomorrow or the day after.”
The Ballydoyle regulars, Séamus Heffernan and Colm O’Donoghue, as well as Richard Hughes and the champion jockey pair of Pat Smullen and Ryan Moore, are on standby to ride the rest of the O’Brien string.
As expected O’Brien took Freemantle, Johann Zoffany and the French Derby-bound Malibu Bay out of Epsom yesterday while Jim Bolger reduced his options to just Gan Amhras by taking out Fergus McIver.
Just five home-trained colts remain in the race headed by the 20 to 1 shot Crowded House who was left in yesterday by trainer Brian Meehan.
William Hill rate O’Brien at just 40 to 1 to saddle the first five home but a spokesperson admitted: “This is one of the fiercest Derby heats for some time with punters finding it impossible to find a hard-core fancy.”
Aidan O’Brien also confirmed yesterday that last year’s Irish Derby-hero Frozen Fire will take his chance in Friday’s Coronation Cup and it looks like he will be the sole Irish-trained runner in the race. The Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Casual Conquest is also among the entries for the Group One event but his trainer, Dermot Weld, said yesterday: “I would say he is unlikely to run. I couldn’t be happier with the horse and he has come out of his last race well. But we might wait with him.”
The O’Brien-trained Cheshire Oaks heroine Perfect Truth and Jim Bolger’s Oh Goodness Me are set to fly the Irish flag in Friday’s Oaks, a race that both trainers have won in the past.
Irish horses look like dominating Saturday’s blue-riband but that isn’t stopping Montaff’s owner Barry Walters believing he has a chance of upsetting the Irish applecart. Montaff was runner-up to Age Of Aquarius in the Lingfield Derby Trial and his owner said yesterday: “We had a little problem with him earlier in the year when he had a small splint and he wouldn’t have been as fit as some of his rivals at Lingfield. He is a good horse and worthy of a shot at the Derby.”
The betting
Paddy Power prices:
11-4Fame And Glory
3Sea The Stars
5Rip Van Winkle
8Black Bear Island
8Gan Amhras
12Masterofthehorse
20Age Of Aquarius
20Crowded House
25Bar
