James Doyle’s two rides in the Derby to date have started at 40-1 and 33-1 and run accordingly but he will go to post on a leading fancy this weekend after the Godolphin operation booked the champion jockey Silvestre de Sousa to ride their outsider Dee Ex Bee, leaving Doyle free to ride the Chester Vase winner, Young Rascal, for William Haggas.
Doyle is retained to ride for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation and could have been held to his contract to ride Dee Ex Bee who is owned by his son, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed.
The Sheikh’s willingness to let Doyle maintain his partnership with Young Rascal has echoes of his father’s decision to allow Frankie Dettori to ride Authorized in the 2007 Derby, in which Dettori won the Classic for the first time at the 14th attempt.
Young Rascal was half a length in front of Dee Ex Bee in the Chester Vase, one of the best trials for the race, on Saturday but Doyle had to switch to find running room in the straight and Young Rascal won with more in hand than the margin might suggest. Wings Of Eagles, the Derby winner last year, finished second in the Vase before his win at Epsom, however, and de Sousa will feel that he is going to post with an each-way chance on Mark Johnston’s 33-1 shot.
“I think it suits everyone involved,” Charlie Johnston, his father’s assistant trainer, said on Monday. “Obviously James has ridden Dee Ex Bee but I’m quite sure he was keen to ride William’s horse, having been to ride him at Breakfast with the Stars [at Epsom last week]. Silvestre won on Dee Ex Bee first time out and he has a great record at Epsom. I think all parties are happy with how it’s turned out.”
De Sousa took the Flat jockeys’ title in 2015 and 2017 and has ridden at least 100 winners in Britain every year since 2010 but his opportunities in the sport’s biggest events have remained limited. The most recent of his three Group One wins in Britain was in August 2015, on the 50-1 outsider Arabian Queen in the International Stakes at York.
Aidan O’Brien could saddle half the field at Epsom this weekend, including the hot favourite Saxon Warrior, as he seeks a record-equalling seventh Derby winner.
O’Brien is responsible for seven of the 14 remaining entries after the five-day stage on Monday, and only one of his possible team – the Dee Stakes winner, Rostropovich – also holds an entry in the French Derby at Chantilly on Sunday. Saxon Warrior (8-11), Delano Roosevelt (14-1) and The Pentagon (20-1) are the only entries from O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable priced below 40-1, though few punters will need reminding that Wings Of Eagles, his sixth winner, was a 40-1 chance last season.
Lingfield 1.40 Jeopardy John 2.10 Octave 2.40 Global Excel 3.10 Coeur Blimey 3.40 Sawwaah 4.10 Dragstone Rock (nap) 4.40 Lungarno Palace 5.10 Dubai Frame
Leicester 1.50 Murqaab 2.20 Flight Of Fantasy 2.50 Ghost Serge 3.20 Electric Landlady 3.50 Fanaar 4.20 Sweet Charity 4.50 Edge Of The World
Redcar 2.00 Jensue 2.30 Lever Du Soleil 3.00 Rey Loopy (nb) 3.30 Worth Waiting 4.00 Merry Banter 4.30 Danehill Desert 5.00 Rickyroadboy 5.35 Raffle King
Brighton 5.50 River Rule 6.20 Black Caesar 6.50 Orsera 7.20 Stormingin 7.50 Roy Rocket 8.20 Robert The Painter 8.50 Titus Secret
Wolverhampton 6.10 Ty Rock Brandy 6.40 Sporting Chance 7.10 Kazawi 7.40 Ledham 8.10 Warofindependence 8.40 Zafaranah 9.10 Zapateado
Tips by Greg Wood.
