RACING/Irish Derby news:Kieren Fallon will secure a unique piece of history if Eagle Mountain wins Sunday's Budweiser Irish Derby as no jockey has ever won Ireland's most valuable race three times in a row.
Fallon will lead a four-strong Aidan O'Brien-trained raiding party on board Eagle Mountain in the €1.5 million feature that he won on Dylan Thomas last year and Hurricane Run in 2005.
That Ballydoyle team as a whole are as short as 4 to 7 with Cashmans to land the Derby but it is Eagle Mountain, runner-up to Authorized at Epsom, who is dominating the ante-post betting and he remains a general odds-on favourite with most firms.
Riding arrangements for the three other O'Brien-trained runners will include Michael Kinane but Colm O'Donoghue, who has been placed in a number of Irish Derbys on board Ballydoyle outsiders, will be in Hamburg this time to ride Anton Chekhov in the German Derby.
"The horse has won a couple of times on soft ground so that wouldn't bother him on Sunday if it came up," O'Brien said yesterday.
"Colm will go to Germany to ride him."
The home focus, however, will be very much on the Curragh and Fallon will again be the centre of attention due partly to his continued suspension from riding in Britain as result of race-fixing charges for which he faces a London High Court trial in September.
It was at this time last year, just after Dylan Thomas's Derby success, that the jockey was banned by the Horse Racing Authority in Britain, and also when he tested positive for cocaine in France.
A six-month ban for that offence ended earlier this month and now Fallon has the chance to carve out his own little bit of history in Irish racing.
Michael Kinane with Galileo (2001) and High Chaparral (2002) is the last jockey to win back-to-back Derby victories and others to do that in modern times are Cash Asmussen (1998-99), Pat Eddery (1984-85) and Lester Piggott (1967-68).
Yesterday, Eagle Mountain moved to 4 to 5 with Paddy Power in their classic betting while there was also support for O'Brien's Chester Vase winner Soldier Of Fortune who was cut to 6 to 1 from 8 to 1.
Shareef Dancer in 1983 added the Irish Derby to a King Edward VII Stakes success and Boscobel will attempt the same on Sunday, but without Frankie Dettori.
The Italian could have attempted a Derby three-timer of his own if he had lodged a stay on a two-day whip ban before Monday evening.
However, he and the Sheikh Mohammed team missed that deadline and Dettori will miss out on the chance to follow up Authorized's win at Epsom and Lawman's French victory.
"He could have ridden in both the Pretty Polly Stakes on Saturday and the Derby but we missed the deadline," said Dettori's agent, Ray Cochrane.
"It is a real sickener."
As a result, the Irish-born rider Joe Fanning keeps the ride on Boscebel who secured that Royal Ascot Group Two prize just last Friday.
The ground at the Curragh yesterday was officially "yielding" with some good to yielding patches on the round course. The track manager, Paul Hensey, said:
"Friday is supposed to be a good bright day but there is a possibility of a band of rain crossing the country some time over the weekend.
"It's a case of one step forward and one step back. There will be fresh ground used for the Derby on Sunday."
Johnny Murtagh will ride the French Oaks winner West Wind in Saturday's Audi Pretty Polly Stakes instead of Frankie Dettori and the filly's trainer Alex Pantall said yesterday:
"She is very well at the moment. I hope she is still improving. I think Johnny Murtagh is a very good jockey."
Irish interest in Saturday's Northumberland Plate at Newcastle will include hurdler Al Eile who pleased his trainer John Queally in a work-out yesterday morning.
Neil Callan is likely to take the ride and Queally said:
"He runs off 96 on Saturday which is about his mark. He has done enough in Ireland to merit that.
"I'll be delighted if he finishes in the first four as there is good prize-money for the placed horses. We might look at similar races for him later in the season."
BETTING: (Irish Derby) Paddy Power bet: 4-5 Eagle Mountain, 6 Soldier Of Fortune, 7 Royal And Regal and Shamdinan, 8 Boscobel, 12 Mores Wells, 16 Al Shemali, 20 bar.
