Focus switches to Irish Derby and re-start of National Hunt
ON THE home front, the attention switches to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh next Saturday at 7.15 p.m.
The race has retained its original date and comes in ahead of the Epsom and French Derbies by a week to be the first major derby in Europe this year.
The Epsom Derby and Oaks will be on the same card on July 4, and the French Derby is the following day.
The proximity of these races, plus the quarantine and other protocols, means there is unlikely to be any overseas runners. The Curragh card also includes two Group 3 races, the Alleged and Vintage Crop Stakes.
It will be a unique occasion to see the flagship race of the year being run behind closed doors at an unusual time. The prize fund has been cut in half but is still a substantial €750,000.
For the bigger operators the money is irrelevant – the prestige of the event and its potential significance for breeding purposes and stud fees are much more important.
Aidan O’Brien is bidding for an incredible 14th Irish Derby success and will have a very strong hand as usual, as indicated by the early betting, with Vatican City leading the way at about 10/3 – 7/2 after his good second to Siskin.
Inishfree is at 9/2 despite not running since last November, Russian Emperor is shortening after his Ascot win to 5 or 6/1, while Mogul is drifting after his Ascot failure.
There is a very good card at headquarters on Sunday also including the Group 1 Alwasmiyah Pretty Polly Stakes, the Weatherbys Group 2 Greenland Stakes, and the Paddy Power Rockingham Handicap.
The other big news was the resumption of jumps racing at Limerick yesterday for the first time since Clonmel on March 24. There is a cautious return with just three other NH meetings this week – Roscommon (Wednesday), Tipperary (Friday) and Kilbeggan (Monday, June 29). Good luck to all the Wexford connections.
Aidan O’Brien had a series of seven maiden winners at home during the week – fillies Laburnam (2/1) at Gowran and Eden Quay (9/2) at Limerick on Wednesday, and he won one for colts with Memorabilis (11/4) at Fairyhouse on Thursday.
Wayne Lordan won on Swiss Ace (2/1) at Tipperary, and Seamie Heffernan won at
Gowran with Friday Keats (8/13), Military Style (10/3) in a six-furlong test at Naas on Saturday, and Numen (7/1) over ten furlongs at Leopardstown on Sunday.
Jim Bolger has been slow into stride and did not have a winner last week, and only one from 48 runners in the past two weeks.
Donagh O’Connor from New Ross won a handicap at Naas in good style on Prisoner’s Dilemma (18/1), trained by Johnny Levins at the Curragh, beating favourite Gee Rex (11/4) and Declan McDonagh by three parts of a length.
This was some compensation for the Ross man as in the previous race his only other ride for the day, Dark Magic for Levins, was withdrawn for refusing to go into the stalls.
Donagh is yet another graduate of the Jim Bolger academy - he spent two summers working for him in his early teens and joined RACE from where he became an apprentice with trainer Johnny Levins who provided him with his first winner on Miller Beach at Naas on August 14, 2014.
The partnership has remained intact for nearly six years, with Levins still providing the bulk of the O’Connor mounts. He has had 34 winners on the all-weather at Dundalk, including five this year, and 38 on the turf.
His best season was 2017 when he had 13 wins and 35 placed efforts to accumulate over €175,000 in prize money.
In Britain, P.J. McDonald had five Royal Ascot rides but no winner for the week. He did have a treble at Ripon on Saturday for three different trainers, on Risk of Thunder (11/8) for Jim Tate, I Am a Dreamer (22/1) for Paul Midgley, and Streak Lightning (2/7) for Mark Johnston.
He also had three seconds for a good day’s work.
He won on High Accolade (11/10) for Tate at Redcar on Sunday.
Pat Dobbs had one win, on Feathers (5/2) at Goodwood on Monday. He had eight Ascot rides without success.