Keane books Derby ride on White Birch

There will be a maximum field of 16 in Saturday’s 244th Betfred Derby after the third favourite Passenger, as expected, was supplemented and six colts taken out of the race at the five-day stage yesterday.

Colin Keane, the four-time and current Irish champion jockey, has picked up his first Derby ride on 14-1 shot White Birch, the runner-up in the Dante, for Cork trainer John Murphy. “He’s bouncing,” said Murphy, whose colt is aiming to become the first grey to win since Airborne in 1946 and only the fifth in the race’s 243 runnings so far. Gustavus (1821), Tagalie (1912) and Mahmoud (1936) are the other members of the small club, though Terimon and Silver Patriarch have both finished second in more recent memory.

“He’s a great old constitution and appears to have come out of the Dante well,” Murphy added. “It wasn’t the plan to follow them but he lost a length coming out of the stalls. He’ll probably travel over by ferry on Thursday, he seemed to handle the trip to York well. We haven’t done much with him but since then Colin came and sat on him. We’re ready!”

Kevin Stott will have his first ride in the Derby on King Of Steel, the Amo Racing colt who was withdrawn from the Dante after rearing and getting a leg over into the neighbouring stall. Epsom will be the second meeting he has attended this week; he was at Leicester for a stalls test yesterday.

One of the big guessing games is how many runners Aidan O’brien, who is looking to match Lester Piggott’s nine victories in the race, will field. However, it will not be more than four after he took out Espionage, Gooloogong, Greenland and Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Paddington, who will head, instead, to Ascot for the St James’s Palace Stakes.