Old Persian backed to end Godolphin’s Irish Derby wait
Only eight days after winning at Royal Ascot, Old Persian can help Charlie Appleby, William Buick and Godolphin complete a memorable Derby double with different horses by winning the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at The Curragh today.
The colt, by Dubawi, has won three of his four starts this season and improved considerably for the step up to a mile and a half in the King Edward VII Stakes, in which he beat Rostropovich by a length and three quarters.
At a mile and three furlongs the runner-up seemed to be closing him down, but Old Persian was strong and appeared to be beginning to draw a way again at the line.
That was a slowly run race and one imagines there will be a stronger gallop across the Curragh today, which will only help Old Persian. The drawback, of course, is the quick turnaround, but it is not as if the Ascot race was an end-toend gallop from start to finish and it did not look as if Buick had to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
“He’s come out of the race well and has done everything right since; he ate up, he’s regained the weight he lost, he’s showing his well-being,” said Appleby yesterday. “He’s tough, he doesn’t lie down easily and William made the point that Ascot wasn’t gruelling, they were only racing for the last half mile.
“We fully respect Dee Ex Bee and Saxon Warrior and we’d like the Derby form to be upheld, but Old Persian has a nice progressive profile. He’s very different from Masar, who we’re hoping is one of those special horses. This horse wouldn’t have the pace to be placed in a Guineas or win a Craven, but he hasn’t been beaten many times.”
With Aidan O’brien fielding four, including Saxon Warrior on a retrieval mission, and bidding for his 13th win in the race, this is enemy territory for Godolphin, who have not won the race since Balanchine in 1994 with an in-house trainer.
Ballydoyle clearly retains faith in the 2,000 Guineas winner, despite his ordinary performance at Epsom, where he appeared to stay but without the fireworks he showed over a mile at Newmarket.
The other Irish runner that should not be dismissed lightly is Mick Halford’s Platinum Warrior, who won the Gallinule Stakes from Joseph O’brien’s Latrobe last time.
Elsewhere, switching the Stobart Rail & Civils Northumberland Plate, the Pitmen’s Derby, to the allweather at Newcastle does not seem to have impinged upon its popularity. Higher Power won it last year, Withhold only ran twice last season but ran away with the Cesarewitch on his last start, while Lagostovegas won at Ascot last week, but over an extra half mile.
Given the form of Eve Johnson Houghton’s stable, the value may be with On To Victory. He was the narrow runner-up in a Listed race over a mile and three quarters first time out but would not let himself down on the fast ground at York.
He gets a mile and three-quarters well, was second on his only start on the all-weather and is drawn well.
Coolmore announced yesterday that Merchant Navy, their Australian import who won the Diamond Jubilee last week, had arrived at the stud with a view to going into quarantine before flying to Australia for the southern hemisphere’s stud season. It means he will not run in the July Cup.