RACING:A VITAL pre-Ascot Gold Cup clash looks set to take place at Leopardstown on Friday evening when the stayer's champion Fame And Glory is set to be tackled by the young gun, Saddler's Rock.
Fame And Glory is currently a general 7 to 4 favourite to defend his Gold Cup crown later in the month after a recent winning return to action at Navan in the Vintage Crop Stakes. The 2009 Irish Derby hero is among 13 left in Friday’s Seamus Rosemary McGrath Memorial Savel Beg Stakes and they also include Unaccompanied who he beat in the Vintage Crop.
Saddler’s Rock had to miss that race due to a knock but is ready for a race that trainer John Oxx is desperate to get into the Doncaster Cup winner. The Curragh trainer also faces a race against the clock to get his highly-rated colt Akeed Mofeed to the start-line for the Irish Derby later in the month. The son of Dubawi missed out on both the Guineas and the Epsom Derby due to injury but the Irish Derby remains his target.
“He’s not long back from a second stint of three weeks just walking and trotting so it is going to be a tough ask of him to make the Derby at the Curragh,” Oxx reported.
