Racing:Aidan O'Brien admits stable jockey Johnny Murtagh faces a tough choice ahead of Sunday's Irish Derby at the Curragh. The Ballydoyle handler has trained seven previous winners of the Curragh Classic and has five entries in this year's renewal.
His main hopes would appear to be Jan Vermeer, beaten into fourth when favourite in the Epsom Derby, and Cape Blanco, who was a big disappointment in the French equivalent at Chantilly.
While Jan Vermeer was installed as the initial favourite for Sunday’s Group One prize, most bookmakers now have Cape Blanco as their market-leader.
“Johnny hasn’t made up his mind which horse he’s going to ride yet and I suppose that’s why the markets are the way they are,” O’Brien said. “We give Johnny as much time as he wants to make up his mind as he wants to be on the one that has the best chance.
“There are a lot of factors he’s got to work out in his mind and obviously we both talk about it. He has to try and work out whether Jan Vermeer has improved enough since Epsom and why Cape Blanco was disappointing in France and whether he can leave that run way behind him.
“In Epsom you could say the pacemaker got away and Jan Vermeer was a little bit on and off the bridle. It might have been greenness and it might have been the race fitness.
“Cape Blanco ran a listless race really in France, so there are a lot of things to factor into his decision. It’s very possible we will run all five horses but not definite as obviously they have to go through all their tests.
“It’s important we support the race as we know how special the race is. The Curragh every year is always the ultimate test because it’s probably the fairest track, you usually get an even gallop and it takes all the hard luck stories out of it.
“Epsom can be very tactical sometimes and you can get different results.”