Derby hero set for Australia mission

Aidan O’brien has set his sights on winning the Ladbrokes Cox Plate for a second time, with Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck and Royal Ascot victor Circus Ma x i mu s a mo n g h i s 1 1 i n i - tial entries for the Australian feature.

O’brien sent Adelaide to win t h e 2 0 14 r e n e wa l , w i t h t h e M o o n e e Va l l e y G r o u p O n e subsequently dominated by Chris Waller’s superstar Winx, a r e c o r d f o u r - t i mes wi n n e r before her retirement earlier this year.

No stranger to competing in Australia, O’brien has the likes of Japan, Hermosa and Fleeting also in the mix.

“To win a Cox Plate, you need a horse with plenty of tactical sp eed that gets a mile and a quarter well,” said O’brien.

“We have entered 11 horses that we think might suit the race, but, of course, some of them don’t always progress as well as we were hoping.

“But Anthony Van Dyck and Circus Maximus are two very hardy colts with good tactical speed, and both should handle nice ground. It’s probably too early at this stage to say who our No 1 seed is, we usually nominate a number of horses and then we will see how they progress from now.”

A total of 27 overseas entries include David Menuisier’s German Group One victor Danceteria, Andrew Balding’s John Smith’s Cup hero Pivoine and t h e Ma r k Jo h n s t o n - t r a i n e d Communique, a dual Group Two scorer.

Joseph O’brien, who already has a Melbourne Cup triumph on his CV, has Irish Derby winner Latrobe, Master Of Reali t y, B u c k h u r s t a n d I r i d e s s a entered.

Meanwhile, Volcanic Sky can make it two wins on the bounce in the tiesplanet.com – Ladies Love Guys In Ties Handicap at Pontefract. Saeed bin Suroor’s charge boasts a blue chip pedigree, but his tally of two wins in ten starts suggests he has taken a bit of time to find his feet.

Gelded over the winter after winning one of his seven outings as a three -year- old, Volcanic Sky has now seemingly found some consistency, hitting the bar at Kempton as well as from an unfavourable draw in the Cumberland Plate at Carlisle, before finally getting his head in front at Leicester.

C a l l u m S h e p h e r d , wh o

i s on b oard again here, ro de a peach of a race that day, setting the pace before kicking on to score a comfortable two-anda-three-quarter-length verdict.

The handicapper has raised him 4lb for that win, but Volc a n i c S k y a p p e a r s o n a n upward curve now.

Suwaan l o o k s t h e p i c k f o r Ruth Carr in the Chaplins Club Handicap. He is on his lowest mark since 2017 and has looked as though he is returning to some kind of form in finishing fourth and third on his two most recent outings.

While he is on a lengthy losi n g r u n , C a r r wi l l s u r e l y b e keen to see him bounce back to winning form in a race that commemorates her grandfather David Chapman’s handicap star.