As nearby Sandown prepares for Saturday’s Jumps Finale, when the trainers’ title could yet go down to the last race of the season, the Spring Meeting at Epsom on Wednesday is a reminder that it is less than seven weeks until the Derby. It is sandwiched between Aintree and Ayr on the one hand, and Sandown and next week’s Punchestown festival on the other, but the fields for the Epsom Classics will begin to assemble when nine runners go to post for the Investec Derby Trial.
The landscape has shifted around this meeting since its late 19th-century heyday, when it was an important fixture in the early part of the season and played out in front of huge crowds. As recently as the early 1980s, the Great Metropolitan Handicap still followed its traditional course up the home straight, right across the infield and then back on to the main track, an ingenious route which allowed Epsom, a 12-furlong U-shaped track, to stage a two-and-a-quarter-mile race.
Times have changed, and so too the sponsors, as the local publicans and hoteliers who launched both the Great Met and the City & Suburban Handicap in the mid-1800s in an attempt to drum up business have been replaced by the wealth management company Investec, whose client base is a little more exclusive. Investec also sponsor Epsom’s Classics and, since 2012, have offered a guaranteed place in the Derby field to the winner of the Derby Trial.
It would be a small step back in the right direction for the Spring Meeting if that race could pinpoint a colt worthy of the honour – or perhaps a filly good enough to compete in the Oaks. So Mi Dar is among the nine declared runners and her pedigree alone makes her a fascinating contender, as she is a daughter of the exceptional Dar Re Mi, by the leading sire Dubawi. John Gosden’s filly won her only start as a juvenile and is a 25-1 chance for the Oaks before her seasonal debut.
If there is a colt in Wednesday’s field with Derby potential, it is almost certainly Claudio Monteverdi (2.30), a son of Galileo, who is only the second horse to represent Aidan O’Brien in this race since the award of the wildcard for the Classic.
“It’s a race that has had some nice winners down the years,” Andrew Cooper, who is yo-yoing between his roles as clerk of the course at both Epsom and Sandown this week, said on Tuesday. “There was Daliapour and Bull Run, who suffered an injury afterwards, and Midday [the 2009 Oaks runner-up and a subsequent Group One winner] was beaten in it.
“It’s a serious pot and a race we’d be delighted to see gain Listed status. We’re getting higher-rated horses running in it and it’s knocking on the door, but while it’s often got quite a decent winner, the placed horses tend to drag it down a little.”
The lightly raced Prendergast Hill (3.05) will appreciate the step up to a mile and a half in the Great Metropolitan, while Pacify (3.40) can take the City & Suburban for Ralph Beckett, whose string is in excellent form.
Douvan, the winner of the Arkle Trophy, is one of three possible runners from the Willie Mullins stable in Saturday’s Celebration Chase at Sandown, the last Grade One of the jumps season and a race that could be crucial in the battle between Mullins and Paul Nicholls. Un De Sceaux and Vautour are also among 10 entries in a field headed by Nicky Henderson’s Sprinter Sacre, the winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham last month.
Bookmakers declined to price up either Douvan or Vautour on Tuesday amid continuing uncertainty about how many of Mullins’s stable stars will travel to Sandown with Punchestown’s Festival meeting also looming. Sprinter Sacre is top-priced at evens with Stan James, while Un De Sceaux is 6-4 with Bet365 and Paddy Power to record a victory that could seal the title for Mullins.
“It’s hard to think that they’ll all run as there are Grade One opportunities for these horses at Punchestown next week,” Cooper said. “But it’s brilliant that there’s even a chance of some of these superstar horses coming our way.
“At the moment, the ground is a mix of good and good-to-soft all over. It’s increasingly looking like it will be a dry week, and as there’s nothing natural that’s going to send things softer, we’re stepping in already to hold parts of the track as good ground. We wouldn’t want to be on anything faster than good, so we started some selective watering today on the traditionally quicker bits, which tend to be down the back.”
