O’brien issues warning as Derby favourite Luxembourg injured
Luxembourg, the 2-1 Cazoo Derby favourite on the back of his stayingon 2,000 Guineas third, is a doubt for Epsom after the colt was found to be lame after cantering yesterday.
Aidan O’brien has plenty of backup after the victories of Changingoftheguard and Star of India at Chester this week and with more Derby possibles to run at Lingfield Park (United Nations) today, Leopardstown (Stone Age) tomorrow and in multiple options in the Dante at York on Thursday.
“He was a little lame on his offhind this morning,” O’brien said to the Racing Post yesterday, four weeks before the Derby. “We are not sure of the reason why at this stage but we wanted to let everyone know with the Derby coming up.”
Luxembourg drifted out to 6-1 yesterday in the ante-post market while Changingoftheguard shortened to 7-1 from 10-1. The third favourite, Walk of Stars, goes in today’s SBK Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield Park over similar topography to Epsom. Adayar, who went on to win the Derby for Godolphin last year, finished second in this trial.
With New London disappointing at Chester, Walk of Stars is one of Charlie Appleby’s main hopes but the way O’brien (five winners) and Ryan Moore (eight from 11 rides) including yesterday’s Tote Chester Cup with 6-1 shot Cleveland, have run this week, it would be a brave man to dismiss United Nations.
He was beaten two lengths by Godolphin’s Nahanni in the Epsom trial but was doing his best work at the finish and, like many of O’brien’s, can come on giant strides for that run and the step up in trip.
A month before our own Derby, the 148th Kentucky Derby takes place at Churchill Downs tonight. The Steve Asmussen-trained Epicentre is likely to start favourite in a maximum field of 20, which includes the Japanese winner of the UAE Derby, Crown Pride. Given how successful Japanese horses have been over the past year, he should not be dismissed at 33-1.
Even though Bob Baffert, who has won the race six times and had a seventh taken off him last year when Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, is disqualified from having runners in Kentucky and New York states, he still casts a shadow over the race.
Two colts formerly trained by him, Taiba and Messier, are running for his former assistant Tim Yakteen. It is unclear whether the colts will return to Baffert after the Derby, but either way it is being regarded by many in the United States as a “black eye” for the sport.