Dartmouth can pass test at the Curragh

THE prospect of testing ground at the Curragh should not trouble the Queen’s Dartmouth in tomorrow’s Irish Leger. The royal runner leads the British challenge to Aidan O’Brien-trained hot favourite Order Of St George following the withdrawal of Michael Bell’s Ascot Gold Cup winner Big Orange. Dartmouth landed the Group Two Yorkshire Cup in May and was edged out by Montaly back at the track in last month’s Lonsdale Cup. John Warren, racing advisor to the Queen, said: ‘He is in very good form. With a top-class horse you are always concerned about extremes of going but the ground when he won at York in the Spring was pretty ordinary and he coped very well. He will run on the ground but like everyone we would prefer it was not hock deep. He is exceptionally versatile. The Queen gets tremendous pleasure out of him.’ With regular jockey Ryan Moore on Order of St George, Seamus Heffernan rides Dartmouth, who bids to give the Queen her first group one win since Estimate won the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup. There are three other British challenger’s in the Irish Leger — Jedd O’Keefe’s Lord Yeats, Ralph Beckett’s Mount Moriah and John Gosden’s Western Hymn. Richard Fahey’s Ribchester is odds-on favourite for the main race on the card — the Group One Prix Du Moulin.