The Derby runner-up reappears at Leopardstown on Thursday night in a prep run for the Irish Champion Stakes next monthThe theory that Madhmoon – runner‑up at Epsom – may eventually prove the best horse who ran in the Derby, will get another examination in the Group One Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown next month.Meanwhile the colt – who travelled so strongly for such a long way in the colts’ Classic before finishing fourth in a farcical Irish Derby in which the subsequent winner Sovereign was given an easy lead – lines up at next month’s venue on Thursday and the trainer Kevin Prendergast reports his charge to be cherry-ripe as his top-class colt warms up for an autumn campaign. Related:...
Ballydoyle trainer went 0-18 at Glorious Goodwood and is in danger of going a month between Group One winsAidan O’Brien has been unable to discover an explanation for Hermosa’s dismal display at Glorious Goodwood last week, when the winner of the 1,000 Guineas in both England and Ireland failed to show anything like her best and trailed home last in the Nassau. The filly had been sent off the 13-8 favourite for a race O’Brien had won twice in the previous four years with other Guineas winners, Minding and Winter, but was eased down in the final furlong and finished 49 lengths behind the surprise winner, Deirdre.“Nothing has come to light with Hermosa,” O’Brien has told the Racing Post. “She...
The ground should be much more to the liking of Sands Of Mali at Hamilton than the sounder surface at Meydan in MarchDel Mar, Deauville, Ascot, Meydan … and Hamilton. It is all in a day’s work for Sands Of Mali, the unexpected winner of the Group One Sprint on Champions Day last October, who will add the Scottish track to his impressively varied CV when he makes his first start of the year in Britain on Thursday.Hamilton deserve plenty of credit for pulling together the six-runner field for the British Stallion Studs Clyde Conditions Stakes, worth £17,000 to the winner, as Sands Of Mali is not the only Group One winner going to post. Related: Talking Horses: Kieran Shoemark...
The Ballydoyle trainer has four of the top six in the betting for the Epsom Derby but has even spoken of running likely favourite Sir Dragonet at ChantillyThis year, more than any other year, it has become important to anticipate Aidan O’Brien’s running plans for the Derby. The master of Ballydoyle has four of the top six in the betting plus other potential runners, only he’s considering sending a couple of them to the French Derby instead. He has even spoken of the possibility of Sir Dragonet, who would start favourite for Epsom if he ran there, turning up at Chantilly. A significant edge awaits any punter who can work out the plans in advance although he has been speaking...
Aidan O’Brien’s Cliffs Of Moher will test an old superstition as he leads European assault on Australian Group OneThere are four Group One races on the card for Champions Day at Ascot, and another with plenty of European interest at Caulfield in Australia on Saturday morning, where Aidan O’Brien’s Cliffs Of Moher, the runner-up in last year’s Derby, is one of four runners from British and Irish stables in the Caulfield Cup, a major trial for the Melbourne Cup. Anyone getting up at 6.40am UK time to back Cliffs Of Moher will find that he now races under the name of The Cliffsofmoher, since his original moniker clashed with that a colt who was already in the Australian form book....