Staff at Epsom may additionally as nicely begin boxing up the Derby trophy and enquiring about the postage fee to County Tipperary, as Aidan O’Brien gained yet any other trial for the Classic here, whilst doubts had been expressed about the suitability of the Derby distance for the primary British contender. Anthony Van Dyke became an outstanding winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial, regardless of a robust advance idea that he could want the run, and he was reduced to a fine fee of 8-1 for the big one next month, having been 14-1 hours in advance.
O’Brien now has the Derby favored, in Sir Dragonet, in addition to three of the subsequent four within the making a bet. The most effective leading contender he does no longer train is Too Darn Hot and, at the same time as John Gosden changed into making encouraging noises about that one’s recuperation from recent harm, he did additionally suggest that the Derby might be 1 / 4-mile too far for him.
“We’re surrounded!” stated Gosden in response to the emergence of another Ballydoyle big name with legitimate Classic aspirations. Asked for his feeling approximately Too Darn Hot’s ideal distance, Gosden replied: “My instinct says, a mile to a mile and a quarter, on the entirety I’ve visible of the horse. But then his complete-sister became 2d inside the Leger last year. The genes say similarly however we’ll allow the pony to tell us and Frankie [Dettori] inform us.”
Gosden feels brief of time, seeking to get Too Darn Hot prepared for Thursday’s Dante Stakes. “Every day counts. He took his paintings nicely, did first-rate canters this morning. All being well, we’ll be on the Dante. It’s not been an excellent state of affairs for the horse, he changed into ready to go in the Greenham and then we needed to have weeks of simply on foot. It’s not clean to come returned from that however I’ve been very glad together with his work. You’d usually love another week but I don’t have another week. So we’ll run him there and we’ll recognize from that race whether or not we must be searching at a St James’s Palace or we should be looking at a Derby.”
“Aidan’s were given them in wonderful form, hasn’t he?” stated Paul Smith, representing the prevailing team behind Anthony Van Dyck, in the absence of O’Brien. “He’ll come on lots for the run however extremely joyful with him. There were some healthy ones in there that had run currently and we hadn’t run considering the fact that the final 12 months. No doubt he’ll come on properly for the run.”
O’Brien, who won both the 1,000 and a couple of,000 Guineas closing weekend, has first-rate probabilities to enhance his Derby risk inside the following couple of days. He runs Broome in today’s Derrinstown Derby Trial at Leopardstown, even as Japan will tackle Too Darn Hot in the Dante.
Japan become O’Brien’s most fancied Derby contender less than per week in the past and might yet reclaim that role. However, Circus Maximus, who received the Dee Stakes for the instructor on Thursday, was an exquisite drifter for the Derby on Betfair the day gone by, being traded at over 70-1 at one factor. Neither of Coolmore’s representatives here had been aware of any problem affecting the pony.
Gosden’s Derby assignment may be in doubt however he has a strong hand in the Oaks, as his Anapurna changed into a nice winner of the Oaks Trial right here, her first race on turf
