HORSE RACING NEWS:CAMELOT MIGHT be an overwhelming favourite for Saturday's Investec Derby at Epsom but Aidan O'Brien is taking no chances as he attempts to bridge a long 10-year gap in the world's most prestigious Classic.
Just a dozen colts remain in the Derby after yesterday’s forfeit stage and five of them are from Ballydoyle.
The unbeaten Guineas hero Camelot is joined by Imperial Monarch, winner of the Sandown Trial, Astrology, a wide-margin winner of the Dee Stakes at Chester, Tower Rock and Father Of Science, a half-brother to O’Brien’s last Derby winner High Chaparral.
The team in total look to provide Ireland’s champion trainer with a stranglehold on this year’s blue-riband as Andrew Balding’s Dante winner, Bonfire, is the only other hope in single figures on bookmaker betting lists.
Camelot is a general 4 to 6 favourite to win at the weekend and William Hill go just 2 to 5 about O’Brien training the winner with one of his team.
However, when High Chaparral beat his stable companion Hawk Wing in 2002, there would have been long odds available about his trainer having to wait 10 years to pass the Epsom Derby winning post in front again.
O’Brien has admitted to returning home “humbled” on many occasions after the great race since then.
Since 2002 he has been runner-up in the Derby on five occasions, including the last three. In 2009 O’Brien had the runner-up, third and fourth. Last year Treasure Beach was edged out on the line by Pour Moi.
The Ballydoyle trainer could enjoy a bumper Group One weekend at Epsom as he also has the favourite, Maybe, for the Oaks on Friday and yesterday he had four horses among the nine left in Saturday’s Coronation Cup.
St Nicholas Abbey will try to defend his Coronation Cup crown while Treasure Beach could also return to the scene of last year’s Derby near-miss. Godolphin have left in their World Cup winner Monterosso.
Irish trainer John Murphy is keeping his fingers crossed for rain at Epsom to allow Gossamer Seed to make the journey for Friday’s Princess Elizabeth Stakes.
The four-year-old took her game to a new level on her recent seasonal reappearance at the Curragh, running away with the Group Three Athasi Stakes in testing ground.
A dry spell means conditions on both sides of the Irish sea are appreciably quicker than they were at the start of the month, and that is the concern for Gossamer Seed’s trainer ahead of her planned trip to England.
“We’re just watching the ground for her. If the going description doesn’t have the word firm in it, then hopefully we’ll travel,” said Murphy yesterday.
“She is a filly who just likes a bit of ease in the ground, so we’ll just monitor things over the next 48 hours until declaration time and see where we are. There are options here if the ground at Epsom is too fast,” he added.
Curragh trainer Michael Halford welcomed back his globe-trotting sprinter Invincible Ash from Singapore on Sunday and could prepare his Meydan winner next for the Kings Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The Curragh’s Sapphire Stakes, a race Invincible Ash won last year, is another option.
Andrew Lynch’s misfortune in breaking a leg at Cork last Friday can work to Davy Russell’s advantage at Ballinrobe this evening where the champion jockey steps in for a trio of well-fancied Henry De Bromhead-trained horses.
The most high-profile of the three is undoubtedly the 2011 Cheltenham Festival winner Sizing Australia who can take advantage of a low handicap mark in the two-and-a-half-mile hurdle.
Sizing Australia has failed to win with the flights mark before but this time he will be on the sort of quick ground that he relishes.
Absolutlyfantastic was ahead of The Bull Hayes at Killarney last time and can confirm those placings in the Beginners Chase while Jimjim Mac Cool can boost the form of Clondaw Warrior in the opener.
Clondaw Warrior himself has a second start over flights in the conditions hurdle and the triple bumper winner looks capable of building enough on his Limerick win earlier in the month to cope with the 138-rated Flycorn.
