Ryan Moore has a shot at a historic Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby hat-trick on Sunday on board Lambourn.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien has confirmed that Moore will team up with the Derby winner in Ireland’s premier Classic after the English jockey discarded him in favour of Delacroix at Epsom earlier this month.
It allowed Wayne Lordan to secure “Blue Riband” glory on Lambourn, who is odds-on to become the 20th colt to complete the prestigious Derby double.
Moore was on board the last horse to manage that feat, Auguste Rodin in 2023. He also landed last year’s Irish Derby on Los Angeles. It leaves the way open for him to complete an unprecedented three-in-a-row in the 160th renewal of the race.
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Moore is one of 11 jockeys to have won the Irish Derby back to back. It’s a list that includes some of the greatest names in the sport’s history from Steve Donoghue (1913-14) to Rae Johnstone (1948-49), Lester Piggott (1967-68) and Pat Eddery (1984-85).
More recently, Cash Asmussen (1998-99), Mick Kinane (2001-02), Kieren Fallon (2005-06) and Johnny Murtagh (2009-10) are among those to manage the feat.
Sunday’s €1.25 million highlight will be just the second time Moore has ridden Lambourn after he won the Chester Vase on him last month.
“He has been good since Epsom and everything has been straightforward. It was a great day for him ... It all went according to plan for him,” said O’Brien.
“He was always going to be ridden forward that day and we were happy to make the running if no one was going on, as he is a good stayer.
“Ryan will ride him next weekend so he will decide which way he wants to ride him as he won the trial at Chester before on him.”
The champion trainer is chasing a 17th success in a Classic he has dominated like no other.
He also has a shot at his own bit of history as no trainer or jockey has won all three major European Derby contests in the same year. In addition to Lambourn at Epsom he saddled Camille Pissarro to land the Prix Du Jockey Club at Chantilly.
Tuesday’s crucial latest acceptance stage will give a clearer indication of the likely final complexion of Sunday’s Classic, but one horse that won’t feature is the beaten Epsom favourite, Delacroix.
Instead, he is likely to accompany Camille Pissarro to the following weekend’s Coral Eclipse at Sandown. Last week’s Royal Ascot winner Trinity College is also in the Eclipse mix for Ballydoyle.
“[Lambourn] is the main one at the moment, but there will be no Delacroix. There might be a couple of others in there, but Lambourn is the main one. This horse has always been straightforward, and he has form on all types of going,” O’Brien said.
Bookmakers reckon the main threat to Lambourn could turn out to be Tennessee Stud, the Joseph O’Brien horse that ran on to be third at Epsom. Another horse that lined out in Epsom, the Dante winner Pride Of Arras, could also try his luck again.
Twice an Irish Derby winner as a jockey, Joseph O’Brien combined with his brother Donnacha to land the race as a trainer through Latrobe in 2018.
Green Impact is set to represent Jessica Harrington and Shane Foley in the Classic, while the race could come under consideration too for Dermot Weld’s Purview. The Juddmonte colt hasn’t been seen in action since finishing runner-up to Delacroix in the Leopardstown Derby Trial.
Weld first won the Irish Derby with Zagreb in 1996 and again with Grey Swallow eight years later. Weld’s Harzand completed the Epsom-Curragh double under the late Pat Smullen in 2016.
Ground conditions at the Curragh on Monday were good and good to firm in places on the Derby course. It was officially good on the straight course. Up to 7mm of rainfall is expected on Wednesday night but watering has begun on the round track.
Saturday’s Group One highlight at the Derby Festival will be the Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes. Kalpana, who ran third to Los Angeles in the Tattersalls Gold Cup on her first start of the season, could line up in that or in the following day’s Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in Paris.
In other news, Willie Mullins may try to keep his big-race momentum up on the flat with a pair of runners in Saturday’s big cross-channel prize, the Jenningsbet Northumberland Plate in Newcastle.
A bumper tally of 62 entries were left in the prestigious handicap at Monday’s latest acceptance stage, including both Pappano and Too Bossy from jump racing’s dominant figure. Both horses were last seen competing over hurdles.
Mullins enjoyed a pair of victories at Royal Ascot last week. Ethical Diamond took the Duke Of Edinburgh Stakes while Sober easily landed the concluding Queen Alexandra Stakes. Moore was on board the Mullins winners.
Moore was also on board Reaching High last week but the royal runner endured a luckless passage in the Ascot Stakes and Mullins has opted not to send him to Newcastle.
Among the favourites for a race widely referred to as the “Pitmen’s Derby” is another high-class dual-purpose performer in East India Dock. He was behind Mullins’s Poniros in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham but subsequently landed the Chester Cup last month.
Who’s Glen, trained by the in-form Andrew Balding, was fifth in that race and has been installed favourite by some firms for the weekend prize.
