Racing:Odds-on favourite Camelot will face eight rivals in the Epsom Derby on Saturday. Aidan O'Brien's star three-year-old flew home from the rear to claim the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket earlier this month and he is a warm order to complete the same Classic double achieved by Sea The Stars in 2009.
The Ballydoyle trainer saddles just one other runner in Astrology, a runaway winner of the Dee Stakes at Chester. The highest-rated British contender is the Andrew Balding-trained Bonfire, who won Britain’s most prestigious Derby trial, the Dante Stakes at York. Balding also runs outsider Minimise Risk.
David Lanigan’s Main Sequence secured his fourth victory from as many starts in the Lingfield Derby Trial, which was this year notably run on the all-weather surface as the turf course was unraceable. The third home at Lingfield, Marcus Tregoning’s Cavaleiro, reopposes this weekend, with Hayley Turner taking the ride for the first time.
Richard Fahey saddles his first ever runner in the famous race in Chester Vase winner Mickdaam, the mount of champion jockey Paul Hanagan. John Gosden has an interesting contender in Thought Worthy, while Rugged Cross from the Henry Candy stable completes the final field.
O’Brien, meanwhile, is mainly looking to Maybe from his six-strong team to give him a fourth triumph in the Oaks at Epsom tomorrow. It is six years since the Ballydoyle trainer last landed the fillies’ Classic with Alexandrova and he is going all out to win it again.
Maybe heads his sextet and she is on something of a retrieval mission having lost her unbeaten record on her seasonal reappearance in the 1000 Guineas. She could only finish third behind stablemate Homecoming Queen at Newmarket after a lengthy delay to the start of the race due to the fatal injury suffered by Gray Pearl.
However, O’Brien was satisfied with the run. “We were very happy with her run in the Guineas when the ground was a bit on the slow side,” O’Brien told Racing UK.
“It was her first run of the year and perhaps she laboured a little bit through the race, but she was in the stalls a long time and lots of things happened.
“She is by Galileo and she has a very fast pedigree, so a mile and a half is unknown until we do it. She’s a big, powerful filly, she always was, she’s like a big colt really. She’s big, but very well balanced. It’s all about balance.”
O’Brien also has Betterbetterbetter, Devotion, Kissed, Twirl and Was in the mix as he sees the Oaks as a highly-significant race for potential broodmares. “Betterbetterbetter ran a good race at Chester and Joseph said if he was riding her again, he might delay her challenge,” he added.
“Twirl returned at York and would like to step up to a mile and a half. The Oaks is an incredibly important race for the pedigree.”