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Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Aidan O'Brien trio bid to derail Desert Flower in Epsom Oaks
Aidan O'Brien has completed the Oaks-Derby double three times and will be triple-handed going into Friday's fillies' Classic at Epsom. The trio of Minnie Hauk, Giselle and Whirl fly the Ballydoyle flag in a race O'Brien has won 10 times. His son Joseph also throws his hat into the Oaks ring with Wemighttakedlongway. Father and son will also fly the Irish flag in Saturday's Derby, but if that bumper 19-runner field appears wide open then the Oaks looks to revolve around Godolphin's unbeaten 1,000 Guineas winner Desert Flower . Success for her will complete trainer Charlie Appleby's collection of English Classics and continue Godolphin's momentum after their sparkling Guineas double at Newmarket. READ MORE Since then, though, the Ballydoyle bandwagon has hit top-gear too. Henri Matisse and Camille Pissarro are French Classic winners, while Lake Victoria landed the Irish 1,000 Guineas . Friday's Group One action also features the Coronation Cup and another hot favourite in French star Calandagan. His owner, the late Aga Khan, who died in February, will be remembered in the Derby race title and his green colours will be carried by Midak. O'Brien pulled off the Epsom Classic double in 2001, 2012 and 2020. But in 2012 he also landed the Coronation Cup, a landmark hat-trick achieved through the trio of Was, St Nicholas Abbey and Camelot. His two hopes for the older-horse contest this time, the last two Leger winners Jan Brueghel and Continuous, try their luck against Calandagan, but another Classic victory will be the priority. If some uncertainty reigned about what Ryan Moore would ride in the Derby, before he opted for Delacroix, it always seemed a done deal that he would end up on Minnie Hauk in the Oaks. The Cheshire Oaks isn't normally Ballydoyle's preferred route to Epsom glory, but it has a proven pedigree of identifying future Epsom winners, most notably Enable in 2017. Minnie Hauk won smoothly at Chester, proving her versatility in terms of ground in the process, so Moore's selection is significant considering Giselle won by a wide margin at Lingfield and Whirl landed the Musidora at York. Those are the three major Oaks trials in Britain, although the Guineas winner represents another level of competition again. No less a judge than Kieren Fallon, a four-time Oaks winner himself, who now rides work for Appleby, has labelled the Oaks a foregone conclusion, even going so far as to suggest he would fancy Desert Flower if she lined up in the Derby. This will be a half-mile further than Desert Flower has run before. Although Appleby and Co are confident of her stamina, it is still a question mark about a filly that made most of the running in her Guineas success. Any such freewheeling instincts could prove costly over the trip, and a surface that's forecast to be no quicker than 'good' at best. Giselle managed to win impressively at Lingfield while doing plenty wrong. She presents Colin Keane with a shot at a first English Classic and a quandary as to how best to settle her. In contrast Minnie Hauk and Whirl (Wayne Lordan) looked professional in their trials, while Wemightakedlongway landed the Navan race won by last year's Oaks winner Ezeliya en route to Epsom. However, everything is likely to pivot around Desert Flower. 'We all know that the trip is going to be the question mark and we won't know whether she stays until we run her over it,' Appleby said. 'She looks like a filly who will get a mile-and-a-half and, as far as we are concerned, she has won the best trial for the race.' Any vulnerabilities, though, and the Ballydoyle team could set up another major Epsom success story.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Delacroix on course to try and crack the Dubawi Derby puzzle for Ballydoyle team
The final countdown to the 246th Betfred Epsom Derby started on Monday as 20 possible starters are still in the blue-riband renewal, and with a potential dash of elite bloodstock irony in the mix too. Aidan O'Brien 's Ballydoyle team has four hopefuls left in the Derby after Monday's latest confirmation stage, topped by the antepost favourite Delacroix. O'Brien, chasing a record-extending 11th Derby success, has said he believes jockey Ryan Moore will find it hard not to pick Delacroix when new 72-hour final declarations for the race are made on Wednesday. The Lion In Winter is still on course to also line up for O'Brien at Epsom, as are Chester Vase winner Lambourn and Lingfield Trial scorer Puppet Master. READ MORE Joseph O'Brien has left in his Group One juvenile winner Tennessee Stud while a pair of French hopes, Midak and New Ground, were supplemented on Monday for £75,000 (€89,000). Delacroix has impressed in two trial victories at Leopardstown this season and will try to be a first Derby winner for his veteran sire, Dubawi. Third himself in the 2005 Derby, Dubawi has been the mainstay of Sheikh Mohammed's Darley breeding operation for years, although he has been conspicuously unsuccessful in the Epsom classic. Benbatl, fifth in 2017, has been the best of his nine Derby runners to date. It will be a salty coincidence then if it is the Sheikh's Irish superpower rivals that manage to crack the Derby code with his own top sire, although it could work the other way too. Godolphin's leading hope is their 2000 Guineas hero Ruling Court, a son of Coolmore's US sire sensation Justify. The Sheikh paid out €2.3 million to buy him at last year's Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. Godolphin are also set to be represented by the Guineas fourth Tornado Alley. William Buick aboard Ruling Court after winning the 2000 Guineas this summer at Newmarket. The Godolphin classic winner will take his chance in the Epsom Derby. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA Dubawi did finally break his Epsom classic duck last year when Dermot Weld saddled Ezeliya to win the Oaks. As expected, Midak will carry the colours of the late Aga Khan, in whose memory Saturday's Derby will be run. Also supplemented into the race on Monday was the Juddmonte operation's New Ground. The colt has been third in two starts this season for trainer Henri-Francois Devin, including behind Sunday's French Derby runner-up Cualificar in April. Juddmonte spokesman Barry Mahon said: 'His form is good and we think he is crying out for a mile and a half. We could have taken him to Chantilly, but decided to wait to go to Epsom. He's in great form.' One of the leading home hopes will be the Dante winner Pride Of Arras who is set to be joined in the race by another Ralph Beckett-trained contender, Stanhope Gardens. The John and Thady Gosden team will also be doubly represented through the Dante runner-up Damysus and Nightwalker. Aidan O'Brien goes into Epsom on a classic roll, having landed Sunday's French Derby with Camille Pissarro. Last month, he also picked up the French 2000 Guineas with Henri Matisse, while Lake Victoria was an impressive winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas. On Saturday, O'Brien will try to repeat his record feat of winning the Derby three years in a row on the back of City Of Troy's success a year ago and Auguste Rodin in 2023. No other trainer has ever pulled off the hat-trick that the Irish man managed between 2012 and 2024 with the trio of Camelot, Ruler Of The World and Australia. His son, Joseph, rode Camelot and Australia and had his first Derby runner as a trainer in 2017 with Rekindling. He subsequently went on to land the Melbourne Cup. O'Brien jnr will become just the ninth Irish-based trainer to win the famous race if Tennessee Stud jumps from his third to Delacroix in last month's Leopardstown Trial to secure Derby glory. A total of 24 Irish-trained winners have won English racing's most famous prize. The going at Epsom is good, although there is a mixed weather outlook for the week ahead. Friday's Epsom programme has O'Brien represented by the trio of Giselle, Minnie Hauk and Whirl in the Oaks. Joseph O'Brien has another potential classic shot here with the Salsabil Stakes winner Wemighttakedlongway. In other news, the Ballydoyle team has said that their star two-year-old Albert Einstein will miss Royal Ascot due to a setback. 'Group Three Marble Hill Stakes winner Albert Einstein, unfortunately, will not run at Royal Ascot due to a sprained joint. He will have an easy three weeks,' they reported. Albert Einstein earned rave reviews from Aidan O'Brien after each of his two starts to date, including the Marble Hill, where he was ridden for the first time by Ryan Moore. 'He's probably as fast a horse as we've seen work,' said the trainer. 'We always thought he was very special.'
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Proven course performer Deressa out to secure valuable prize in €200k Gowran Classic
Beware of bookies bearing gifts is normally sound advice, but not at Gowran Park's bank holiday Monday fixture where free entry to the track is being sponsored by the Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association. It coincides with a second running of the €200,000 Irish Stallion Farms Gowran Classic, the richest race of the year at the Co Kilkenny course. The winner will receive free entry into the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby later this month or into the Juddmonte Irish Oaks if a filly is successful. That proved the case a year ago as Fleur De Chine was successful for Jessica Harrington . The Moone trainer has two of the 11 runners lining up at Gowran Park this time for a race designed to try to boost opportunities for middle-distance bred horses in Ireland. Harrington's number one jockey Shane Foley has opted for Nancy J. READ MORE Top-rated is the Ballydoyle filly Heavens Gate, who landed a valuable sales race as well as a Group Three last year. However, she has failed to fire in a pair of starts this season and beat only two home in the French 1,000 Guineas. This trip of almost 10 furlongs could stretch her stamina. Joseph O'Brien has four shots, with And So To Bed the apparent first choice. But it is Deressa that could prove a solution. She has won twice already this season at Gowran to reach a rating of 93. Of all the runners, the filly bred by the late Aga Khan shapes perhaps as the one most open to progress. A stall one draw is no impediment to her chances either. The other bank holiday fixture is in Listowel, Co Kerry, where champion jumps jockey Paul Townend will fancy his chances of winning on both his mounts. La Note Verte is a course bumper winner from last year who goes in the opening hurdle, while Blood Destiny's rating makes him a standout in a later chase. In other news, Monday will also see an important latest forfeit stage for next weekend's Betfred Epsom Derby and it is set to see the unbeaten Aga Khan colt Midak supplemented into the 'Blue Riband' at a cost of £75,000 (about €89,000). Epsom's authorities have titled this year's Derby in honour of the late Aga Khan, who died in February. Shergar was the first of five Derby winners to carry his famous green silks. Midak won the Prix Greffulhe at Saint-Cloud on his last start, after which his trainer Francis-Henri Graffard recommended a tilt at Epsom. 'He's unbeaten in three starts, we know he gets the trip, he's got the right kind of character to be able to handle Tattenham Corner and all the noise that comes with the Epsom Derby,' Zahra Aga Khan, daughter of the late Aga Khan, said. 'It's nice to have a runner this year because the race is being run in honour of my father, and [Midak's] done everything he should to be a valid runner in the Epsom Derby.' Another potential supplementary entry into the Derby from France is the Juddmonte-owned colt New Ground. Pour Moi, in 2011, was the last of 10 French-trained Epsom Derby winners.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Horse racing tips: Friday, May 30 – Carlisle and Down Royal
Our in-house expert tipster has studied today's eight meetings across the UK and Ireland and come up with three selections that have a chance of maintaining his excellent recent success rate. Ron Wood's selections: Goodie Two Shoes (7.08, Down Royal) @ SP with William Hill ⭐⭐ Milbanke (2.45, Carlisle) @ SP with William Hill ⭐⭐ Wadacre Giorgio (3.45, Carlisle) @ SP with William Hill ⭐⭐ Odds provided by William Hill and correct at the time of writing. Stars denote strength of selection (max 5). If you already have a William Hill account and are looking for a new bookmaker to use for this week's racing, check out more free bets from the best betting sites, reviewed by our experts. 7.08 Down Royal – His Majesty's Plate (Listed, 2m) GOODIE TWO SHOES won a Listed race at Gowran Park by six lengths on her latest start three weeks ago. That was a fillies-only event, whereas she's in open company now and she steps up in trip again. However, she's a well-bred filly from a strong yard (Joseph O'Brien) and is completely unexposed as a stayer, so there's a fair chance that she will be up to this. Selection: Goodie Two Shoes @ SP with William Hill 2.45 Carlisle – Class 6 Handicap (5f) It might be worth taking a chance on MILBANKE. He needs a big return to form, but he drops into Class 6 company for the first time and the booking of Daniel Tudhope, who hasn't ridden him before, is another plus. The fitting of blinkers – another first – could also help, and although he has never won over the minimum trip, this will be a stiff test, so that's another point in his favour. 3.45 Carlisle – Class 6 Handicap (1m 3f) WADACRE GIORGIO looks a likely improver now he is upped in trip on his handicap debut, having shown a bit of ability in maiden and novice company last year. This Charlie Johnston-trained four-year-old is a brother to a winning stayer for the same connections and should appreciate the stamina test. Selection: Wadacre Giorgio @ SP with William Hill Go to site > Ron Wood 2025 horse racing P/L Star ratings explained ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - confident selection ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - strong fancy ⭐⭐⭐ - fair claims ⭐⭐ - tentative choice ⭐ - minimum confidence If you want to find more odds and offers, take a look at our list of the best betting sites and free bets If you're looking for casino bonuses, we've ranked UK welcome offers here
