Dee Ex Bee the real threat, says Dettori of strong field for Irish Derby
Dee Ex Bee, Mark Johnston’s Investec Derby runner-up, will head the biggest field assembled for a Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby in a dozen years when 12 runners line up for Ireland’s premier Flat race at The Curragh tomorrow.
He will be joined from this side of the Irish Sea by Old Persian, who was supplemented by Charlie Appleby earlier in the week after his King Edward VII win at Ascot, and Harry Dunlop’s Knight To Behold, the mount of Frankie Dettori.
Aidan O’brien, who has won the race 12 times, fields four including the 2,000 Guineas winner and Epsom fourth, Saxon Warrior, on a retrieval mission after a flat display when odds-on for the Derby. His wingmen are Delano Roosevelt (sixth at Epsom), Rostropovich (ninth in the French Derby) and The Pentagon (eighth at Epsom).
Joseph O’brien, who has won the race twice as a jockey, runs Latrobe, a colt he was talking about as a “Derby horse” before Cheltenham in March. A six-length course and distance maiden winner last time, he is an unknown quantity.
Because of the heat, Dunlop was sending Knight To Behold on the ferry last night when it was cooler. “We felt an amalgam of things went wrong at Epsom,” the trainer said yesterday. “He went to go to the front and was taken on for the lead, so we paid that penalty, and Richard [Kingscote] said he didn’t much like the track, either.
“The Curragh will suit him a lot better and form-wise it was good to see Kew Gardens, who was behind him in the Lingfield Derby Trial, win the Queen’s Vase at Ascot. He came back from Epsom a bit buzzed up, so we’ve been trying to get him to chill out.”
Dettori, the colt’s jockey, expressed surprise that Saxon Warrior is an 8-13 shot for the Irish Classic while Dee Ex Bee, who appeared to beat him fairly and squarely at Epsom, is a 4-1 shot.
“I don’t understand why Dee Ex Bee is not favourite,” he said. “I’m much more worried about him than I am about Saxon Warrior, who has it all to prove again after the Derby. Dee Ex Bee is the proven stayer and the race may suit him more.”