Racing/Derby news: Dermot Weld has not ruled out a dramatic late switch by his star three-year-old Grey Swallow to Sunday's French Derby at Chantilly.

The colt, who finished third in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, was taken out of Epsom on Monday and the nine-furlong Prix Jean Prat on Sunday had been touted as a likely alternative.

However, Weld is determined to keep his options open in France and has left the trio of Grey Swallow, Cairdeas and Relaxed Gesture in the Prix du Jockey Club.

"We will make a decision later in the week if one of them will go for the race. I want to see what the ground will be like and how the race is making up before I make up my mind," the Curragh trainer said yesterday.

"All three did bits of work this morning and they all went well. But I want to see how Relaxed Gesture is progressing after the little setback that kept him out of last Sunday's Italian Derby.

"Grey Swallow is a possible too and since it only cost €200 to keep him in the Derby we decided to leave him there and keep our options open," he added.

Aidan O'Brien also has the French Derby option for Meath and Moscow Ballet but his number-one Epsom hope Yeats was an alarming drifter in the market yesterday and is now as long as 7 to 2 and a third favourite for Saturday's big race.

"It's the first time Yeats has not headed our market since he won his debut last September," said a Ladbrokes spokesman.

"Even though physio hardly hindered Alamshar in the Irish Derby or Beef Or Salmon in the Punchestown Gold Cup, punters seem to have deserted Yeats for the first time in nine months."

Yeats was as low as 9 to 4 last week but yesterday's news that he was undergoing daily physiotherapy for a muscle problem appears to have shaken punters confidence.

Other news yesterday centred on Horse Racing Ireland's decision to examine the possibility of setting up an all-weather course for solely flat racing in this country.

At a HRI meeting on Monday, the board ruled out any all-weather course that might include jump racing as they concluded that there is "no surface presently available that would accommodate jump racing".

Instead they agreed to examine the "merits of a lower cost industry all-weather track staging flat racing should now be considered".

Any new all-weather course would have to be left-handed and over a minimum distance of 10 furlongs and the HRI board also said a new project would have be to examined for initial capital costs, be financially viable and be able to race over a variety of distances.