Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
EMPEROR TO REIGN Russian has class to win big Trial
WITH the Ballydoyle team clearly in good fettle, lightly-raced Russian Emperor should prove tough to beat as action returns to Leopardstown today.
Having experienced mixed luck in the Guineas at Newmarket over the weekend and the juvenile action in Naas yesterday, Aidan O’brien will saddle three in today’s feature, the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, a race he has won12 times.
And Russian Emperor, which finished strongly, from an unpromising position, to pip
Lobo Rojo in a mile maiden at Naas back in March, makes plenty of appeal for O’brien and Seamus Heffernan in today’s trial.
A son of Galileo, the selection devoured the ground in the closing stages at Naas and looks sure to improve significantly over this longer trip.
He has more potential than 106rated stable-companion Iberia, to which he finished third on his debut at the Curragh last July. Iberia was subsequently highly-tried, but might not cope with Russian Emperor here.
Beaten just three and a half lengths by Saturday’s Qipco 2,000 Guineas victor Kameko when third in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity in Newcastle last October, the O’brien-trained, 110-rated Year Of The Tiger sets a decent standard in the listed Holden Plant Rental Trial Stakes.
Winner of his maiden in Naas, this son of Galileo and Tiggy Wiggy was also tried in Group 1 and Group 2 company last year and he has been found an ideal opportunity to launch his three-year-old campaign.
The Leopardstown Fillies Trial looks a cracking contest and the one I like is Johnny Murtagh’s Know It All, a strapping Qatar Racing-owned filly, successful at the Curragh last summer and mugged late when a close third behind New York Girl and one of today’s rivals A New Dawn in the Group 3 Weld Park Stakes at the Curragh.
She struck me as a filly likely to be even better as a three-year-old.
And she gets a hesitant vote in a wide-open affair, with re-opposing A New Dawn, Ballydoyle hope Tango and the Ger Lyons-trained Peace Charter among the chief dangers.
Aidan O’brien will have five runners in the mile-and-a-quarter colts’ maiden.
And Tiger Moth (the mount of Wayne Lordan, inset), a close third to Ten Year Ticket in a Curragh maiden on his sole two-year-old start, appeals most, although I’ll be keeping an eye Amhran Na Bhfiann, disappointing on his only start last season.