Two horses were added to the field for Saturday’s Derby at the £75,000 supplementary entry stage on Monday and three, including the 2,000 Guineas winner Gleneagles, were taken out, leaving 15 possible runners in the Epsom Classic.
As expected, Golden Horn, the ante-post favourite, was one of the colts to join the line-up and, with Success Days also supplemented by his trainer Ken Condon, Saturday’s race will be run for £1.434m.
The removal of Gleneagles from the entries leaves Aidan O’Brien, his trainer, to rely on Hans Holbein, Giovanni Canaletto and Kilimanjaro as he attempts to extend his winning streak in the Derby, which is already a record, to four.
All three are available at double-figure odds, however, and the Coolmore Stud syndicate which backs O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable has passed up the opportunity to supplement its filly Found, who will run instead in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot later this month.
Found was a leading ante-post candidate for Friday’s Oaks at Epsom but in her absence O’Brien still has two of the first five contenders in the betting for the fillies’ Classic in Diamondsandrubies and Together Forever. He could also send the outsiders Qualify and Wedding Vow to the race, while Coolmore will also be represented by David Wachman’s Legatissimo, the 1,000 Guineas winner and 3-1 favourite.
Golden Horn, who is unbeaten in three starts including the Group Two Dante Stakes at York last month, is a 7-4 chance to give his trainer John Gosden his second win in the Derby, while Dermot Weld’s Zawraq, the only other unbeaten runner still entered, is no bigger than 5-1. Jack Hobbs, runner-up to his stablemate in the Dante, is a 7-1 chance while Elm Park, last year’s Racing Post Trophy winner, is the fourth and last colt at a single figure price at 9-1.
Success Days is unbeaten in his three starts this season, including the Group Three Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown last time out, but all three races were run on heavy ground.
Though some rain is expected at Epsom on Mondaynight, little more is forecast for the rest of the week and Condon’s colt is unlikely to encounter similar conditions this weekend. But his trainer remains hopeful of a big run from the 20-1 chance.
“There are thunderstorms due on Friday, someone tells me, and they are due some rain,” Condon said on Monday.“Andrew Cooper [Epsom’s clerk of the course] does a superb job with the ground and it is always a little bit slower on the Friday. So, if they get some rain, I can’t see there being any sting in it.
“Saturday looks set to be lovely, a picture-perfect Derby day, and we’ll be there. He’s won the best two trials in Ireland and he certainly deserves his place in the line-up. People can say he’s been winning in small fields and on bad ground but the ground is always soft in Ireland in the spring.”
Anthem Alexander, one of last season’s best juvenile fillies and the winner of the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, made a successful return to action in the Group Three Lacken Stakes at Naas on Monday and is now a 10-1 chance for the Group One Commonwealth Cup at the Royal meeting later this month.
Edward Lynam’s filly was sent off as the 5-2 second favourite behind Michael Halford’s Toscanini but travelled well throughout and eased into the lead inside the final furlong to beat The Happy Prince by a length. “I’m relieved more than anything and know she has trained on,” Lynam said. “That run will do her the world of good.
“If I have my way she will go for the Commonwealth, but she is also entered in the King’s Stand [Stakes on 16 June] and the other option is to run in both. We know she doesn’t like soft or heavy ground and we know she wants good or firm, so we wanted to run her here to see where we could draw a line in the sand.”
Anthem Alexander beat Richard Hannon’s Tiggy Wiggy, who was third home in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket last month, in the Queen Mary before finishing runner-up to the same opponent in the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes later in the season. Tiggy Wiggy is among her possible opponents in the Commonwealth Cup, along with Adaay and Limato, first and second in the Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock last weekend.
The form of Jim Bolger’s exciting juvenile Round Two, the favourite for the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, also received a boost on a valuable card at the Irish track when Argentero, the runner-up behind Round Two at the same track last month, recorded a comfortable success in the Listed Rochestown Stakes.
Ger Lyons’s colt was attempting to give 4lb to Round Two in a conditions event last month and was beaten by just a length and a quarter. However, Argentero is unlikely to renew the rivalry at Royal Ascot, with his trainer planning to send him instead to the Railway Stakes at The Curragh on 27 June.
“It was a good, brave performance,” Lyons said. “He’s got a great attitude and a great temperament. He’s still not got the ground he wants, as he wants good ground.
“I wasn’t disappointed the last day as I knew how much Jim Bolger thought of his horse. We probably have the second-best colt in Ireland, so we’ll let him [Round Two] go to Ascot and we’ll go for the Railway Stakes.”
Round Two is top priced at 11-4 for the Coventry Stakes with Irish firm RaceBets, and 5-2 with Paddy Power and Bet365.
American Pharoah, who will attempt to become the first horse since 1978 to complete the Triple Crown when he lines up for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, had his final pre-race breeze at Churchill Downs on Monday. Bob Baffert’s colt, who is due to set off for New York on Tuesday morning, worked over five furlongs in 1m0.2sec.
