He’s my King of diamonds
AND WE HAVE THE WORLD’S GREATEST GROUP 1 JOCKEY
DERBY punters seeking to know the true merit of favourite English King needn’t bother asking Ed Walker.
“We just don’t know how far he could go,” says the man who trains the market leader for the Investec-sponsored Classic.
“He’s not the flashiest of work horses – he’s a chilled-out dude who does what he has to – but you read about horses who are the same and turn it on on the track.”
Walker, 37, admits to a feeling of trepidation when Frankie Dettori, who will take the ride at Epsom this afternoon in search of a third Derby triumph, arrived at Kingsdown Stables in Upper Lambourn to acquaint himself with the son of Camelot.
“I was slightly nervous he might not get a great feeling off him, but Frankie said, ‘I’m not here to find out how good he is – I just wanted to get to know the horse.’”
English King, the winner of a Newcastle maiden in November, was an unconsidered 66-1 shot for today’s Classic before the Lingfield Derby Trial 29 days ago.
But his scornful dismissal of Berkshire Rocco, who went on to chase home Irish Derby winner Santiago at Royal Ascot, sent his odds into freefall.
He is now 7-2 favourite to give Walker the first Group 1 winner of a training career that began in 2010 after spells assisting Luca Cumani and Roger Charlton.
Warren Place was one of the five premises used in Walker’s first six years with a licence, but since 2016 he has been a tenant at Bjorn Nielsen’s picturepostcard stable in Upper Lambourn.
Nielsen’s black-and-yellow silks have been carried by the John Gosden-saddled Stradivarius to three Gold Cup wins at Royal Ascot – but the Derby has always been at the top of the hedge fund manager’s ‘wanted’ list.
“He says, tongue in cheek, that breeding a champion stayer is missing the mark,” smiles Walker (above). “He is breeding horses who are too slow!”
Dettori was on board for each of Stradivarius’s Gold Cups and got the call to replace Tom Marquand aboard English King.
“For my first Derby runner, it’s a comfort to have someone like Frankie,” reasons Walker. “Tom is a brilliant jockey and a star of the future, but they are worlds apart in terms of experience.”
Unflappable Walker is “not bothered at all” by English King’s inside draw in stall one and is unfazed by the idea of winning a behind-closed-doors Derby.
“I don’t do what I do because I want to stand in front of a big crowd and be the centre of attention,” he adds.
But victory in the Derby is what every young trainer craves, and Walker is no different. Now it’s down to the horse.
“He’s never had a smack behind the saddle, we know he stays, are pretty sure he’ll handle the track and we have the world’s greatest Group 1 jockey.
“The big question is, good enough?’”
‘Is he 1
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