Nicky Henderson has confirmed Barry Geraghty is to take up the vacant position as first jockey to the owner JP McManus, ending his time as first rider for the Lambourn trainer. “I think we’re both sad that it’s come to an end,” Henderson said. “We had a wonderful time together.”
McManus’s team have yet to offer confirmation of the new deal, under which Geraghty is expected to take on the role filled for more than a decade by Tony McCoy, who retired in April. Reports on Monday suggested no more than that a deal was close but Henderson is certain it is all but concluded.
“It’s happening all right, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “A very good situation has become available. Barry’s got a young family in Ireland and it makes sense for him to be based there.”
While Henderson has been left without a clear No1 jockey, he has great faith in those who remain and does not expect to bring in anyone new. “Nothing is cast in stone but we have the most amazing team of jockeys here and three of them had winners at the Cheltenham Festival. Barry was basically coming here at the weekends and he will still be doing that, because we train quite a few for JP, including My Tent Or Yours, Hargam and Full Shift.”
Henderson will continue to rely on Nico De Boinville, Andrew Tinkler, Jeremiah McGrath, David Bass and Peter Carberry and said he did not regard there being an established pecking order among his team. “They are all top-class jockeys,” he said. Most outside observers will see the situation as offering an especially good opportunity to the 25-year-old De Boinville, who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March aboard the Mark Bradstock-trained Coneygree.
Qualify, a shock 50-1 winner of the Oaks earlier this month, has been added to Aidan O’Brien’s team for the Irish Derby this Saturday. O’Brien has dominated the Curragh Classic, setting a trainers’ record with 11 wins in total and taking the prize eight times in the past nine years, but he is facing a struggle to extend that fine run this weekend.
The Godolphin-owned Jack Hobbs, runner-up in the English equivalent, is the odds-on favourite, with no firm prepared to offer better than 4-6. O’Brien’s inability to produce a convincing Derby prospect was a most unusual feature of the build-up to this year’s Epsom Classic and his position does not seem to have improved, with none of his horses in the top three in betting lists for Saturday’s race.
“Qualify is in good form since Epsom and John and Chantal [her owners] would like to let her take her chance,” O’Brien was quoted as saying in a press release issued by Horse Racing Ireland. She would be the first filly to win the Irish Derby since Balanchine, also an Oaks winner, in 1994. Thanks to a new ‘win and you’re in’ scheme, Qualify qualifies for free entry into Saturday’s race.
O’Brien added he may have four other runners in the Irish Derby, listing them as Giovanni Canaletto, Highland Reel, Kilimanjaro and Hans Holbein. Giovanni Canaletto, who was fourth in the Epsom Derby, six and a half lengths behind Jack Hobbs, is the most fancied of the O’Brien team on 7-1, while Highland Reel, runner-up in the French Derby, is an 8-1 shot.
Qualify was also offered at 8-1 by one of the first firms to price up the filly as news broke of her likely participation. Kilimanjaro, sixth in the Derby at Epsom, and Hans Holbein, who finished just behind him, are respectively 25-1 and 20-1.
“Giovanni Canaletto is in good form,” O’Brien said. “We felt Epsom was may be coming a little too quick for him but he came out of the race well and we look forward to seeing him run again on Saturday. Highland Reel will step up another quarter of a mile but we were happy with him in France last time and we’ve been happy with him since.
“Kilimanjaro ran a nice race at Epsom and the Curragh might suit him better than Epsom and also I think the same could be said about Hans Holbein.”
Supplementary entries close at noon on Tuesday and it is expected that Curvy, a winner at Royal Ascot last week, will be added to the field. Bookmakers are already offering David Wachman’s filly at 6-1.
