News from the North(ern) Hemisphere

[stodge]

3 hours ago, Swoopa said:

Clerk of the course a bit optimistic declaring they will be running  on good ground ,is he not Stodge! Oaks day possibly good to easing ground, but Saturday could be anything. 

We've had a drop of rain in London this morning. The problem is it's a showery forecast and as we know, if you cop a couple of downpours, it can be significant or you could miss them completely.

The report at 9.20am (before the rain) had the ground at Good - it might now be Good to Soft in places. As for Saturday, who knows?

[stodge]

On 6/1/2025 at 10:59 PM, Tauhei Notts said:

Wootton Bassett; is he shaping up as one of Britain's best stallions?

1st and 3rd at Chantilly.  I have seen his name crop up on a number of occasions.

A son of Ifraaj who was a good stallion in New Zealand, not a champion, but still very good.  I had never ever thought of Ifraaj as a sire of sires.

Wootton Bassett had two more debutant 2-y-o winners at Naas yesterday evening (Wednesday).

AMADEUS MOZART led home an Aidan O'Brien 1-2 in the opening 1400m maiden. He;s the first foal of a Galileo mare who was beaten 93 lengths on her only racecourse start. I think he'll be more of a staying type.

The second, DORSET, was another son of Wootton Bassett and the fourth foal of a Galileo mare whose best progeny so far is rated 82.

The other winner was FLUSHING MEADOW who is out of a Galileo mare, Hence, who did little on the track but that makes him a half to MEGA FORCE who ran without success in the UK and Ireland in 2023 and 2024 but was then cut and shipped to Hong Kong where he's running in Class 3 and 4 handicaps at Sha Tin.

The truth is Coolmore breeds a lot of slow horses as well as the occasional quick one and some of the mares, to be honest, were useless on the track.

[Ohokaman]

Any comment on this Stodge ?  Some strange ones here….

[stodge]

Oaks morning and after 7mm of rain yesterday, the ground is now Good to Soft, Good in places (the Good areas are basically in the straight).

In the Coronation Cup, CALANDAGAN is 4/5 with JAN BRUEGHEL at 4/1 while the morning money has been for GIAVELLOTTO from 7s to 9/2.

In the Oaks, the market hasn't moved much with DESERT FLOWER 6/4, MINNIE HAUK (the chosen of Ryan Moore) at 5s, WHIRL at 11/2 and GISELLE attracting a little support at 8s.

[Swoopa]

No rain overnight,  but showers have started this morning! It has been  damp underfoot since Tuesday here at the  bottom of The Downs. Forecast is for more rain Saturday. My antepost was Lambourn, who probably  doesn't  quite have the same class as a couple of others in the field, but I'm happy with the softer ground which could even things up.

 

[Swoopa]

1 minute ago, stodge said:

Oaks morning and after 7mm of rain yesterday, the ground is now Good to Soft, Good in places (the Good areas are basically in the straight).

In the Coronation Cup, CALANDAGAN is 4/5 with JAN BRUEGHEL at 4/1 while the morning money has been for GIAVELLOTTO from 7s to 9/2.

In the Oaks, the market hasn't moved much with DESERT FLOWER 6/4, MINNIE HAUK (the chosen of Ryan Moore) at 5s, WHIRL at 11/2 and GISELLE attracting a little support at 8s.

Tattenham Corner will be cutting out, they always over water that part of the track pre Derby meeting.

[Ohokaman]

Royal Supremacy having second run in Oz for the Maher stable today.

Ran third to Calandagan at Ascot last year, but that was over 2400m.

They expect it to be running on, the heavy track the unknown.

[Swoopa]

Meet a guy in one of my local pubs last night who has 5% in a Derby runner. Lovely bloke from Middlesbrough, who was buzzing thar he had a horse  in The Derby. Had a great chat, lovess his racing and just travels around watching his horses run in the UK /Ireland and France.

Ive had a wee ew on Lazy Griff (won't mind the ground) @80/1 ccurrently 50/1

 

[stodge]

Derby morning and I’m at the country estate in rural Derbyshire (well planned, Mrs Stodge ).

RULING COURT has drifted from 9/2 to 7s while there has been money for LAMBOURN from 10s to 15/2 and the French horse MIDAK from 16s to 10s.

DELACROIX remains the solid favourite and has been supported from 7/2 to 11/4.

The weight of @Swoopa’s cash has forced LAZY GRIFF from 50s to 33s.

[Idolmite]

35 minutes ago, stodge said:

Derby morning and I’m at the country estate in rural Derbyshire (well planned, Mrs Stodge ).

RULING COURT has drifted from 9/2 to 7s while there has been money for LAMBOURN from 10s to 15/2 and the French horse MIDAK from 16s to 10s.

DELACROIX remains the solid favourite and has been supported from 7/2 to 11/4.

The weight of @Swoopa’s cash has forced LAZY GRIFF from 50s to 33s.

Lazy Griff opened at $126 here in NZ. Backed in to $33 last time l looked. 

[stodge]

With upgrades done and dusted, time to look back at the two day Epsom Derby Festival and I’ll start on Friday which featured the Coronation Cup for the older horses as well as the Oaks for the classic fillies, both run over the iconic 2400m trip.

The Coronation Cup saw French raider CALANDAGAN sent off 8/13 to follow up his strong runs in England last season when he demolished a strong field in the King Edward VII at Ascot by seven lengths and then got close to Derby winner City of Troy in the Juddmonte at York. His principal rival was English Leger winner JAN BRUEGHEL who had lost his unbeaten record on his reappearance at The Curragh but looked much straighter in the paddock despite getting a little warm in the preliminariles.

GIAVELLOTTO was third in at 11/2 with the others not fancied.

A tremendous race and a pulsating duel in the final 300m with JAN BRUEGHEL just outstaying CALANDAGAN in the run to the line. Was the race lost at the start which CALANDAGAN, not for the first time, missed?

Not sure as he was right on the heels of JAN BRUEGHEL at the end of Tattenham Corner but the energy expended to get into position might have told.

Classic Aidan O’Brien tactics with one Leger winner (CONTINUOUS) there to set strong fractions for another (JAN BRUEGHEL). That might have made the difference on the slower ground as we know JAN BRUEGHEL stays 2800m while CALANDAGAN is perhaps a speedier type who needs a steadier gallop on a stiff track like Epsom to see out the 2400m.

GIAVELLOTTO finished seven lengths further back in third and, good horse though he is, he’s not at the top of the tree over this trip but he was clear of the others whose limitations in this grade of race were ruthlessly exposed.

JAN BRUEGHEL is 8s for the Gold Cup but I don’t expect he’ll run at Ascot though with Aidan you never know. He looks an Arc horse providing it doesn’t get too deep in Paris. As for CALANDAGAN, to my eye, he lost little in defeat but if he could break from the stalls better it would help. He’s in races like the Eclipse and the Irish Champion and there’s an argument a strongly-run 2000m is his optimum.

The Oaks was the third of the English classics and having won both Guineas at Newmarket, Godolphin and Charlie Appleby looked to have a good chance of a third with DESERT FLOWER who had impressed at Newmarket. There were some questions over her stamina and she faced a string trio of Aidan O’Brien trained fillies who had won the credential trials. Ryan Moore had chosen Cheshire Oaks winner MINNIE HAUK in advance of Lingfield Oaks Trial winner GISELLE and Musidora winner WHIRL.

The first two after 50m were the first two at the post as a strong gallop set by WHIRL was almost good enough for an all-the-way win but Ryan Moore knew his filly had strong stamina and she just got the better of her stable companion in the final run to the jamstick to win by a neck.

Whether it was the track or the ground or perhaps both I don’t know but for me William Buick never looked happy on DESERT FLOWER. You can’t really say she didn’t stay the trip as she rallied well for third but she was decisively out pointed by the two Ballydoyle runners and I suspect she’ll go back in trip now.

The likes of REVOIR and WEMIGHTATAKEDLONGWAY didn’t get home to my eye while GISELLE was held when short of room 400m out,.

It will be interesting to see how the “lads” campaign the two fillies going forward. They are 5/2 joint favourites for the Irish Oaks but I wonder if one might go for the Leger while the other heads for the Yorkshire Oaks or the Vermeille and both end up in the Arc. Either way, Coolmore have two more prospective broodmares for the future.

The Oaks was run in 2 minutes 38.91 seconds which suggests good to soft ground. The Coronation Cup was run in 2 minutes 36.13 seconds which tells me it was a strongly run race and a good quality renewal.

 

[stodge]

To pick up on some of Harry’s latest reports from today up here.

English 1000 Guineas winner LAKE VICTORIA will miss the Royal meeting as will Queen Anne entry PORTA FORTUNA.

LAKE VICTORIA is having a few weeks off suggesting a late summer/autumn campaign. Oaks winner MINNIE HAUK heads for the Irish Oaks while runner up WHIRL goes for the Pretty Polly in two and a half weeks. Derby winner LAMBOURN heads for the Irish Derby.

DAMYSUS got a knock in the stalls at Epsom which might explain his poor run and as for the two French challengers, fourth placed NEW GROUND heads for the Grand Prix de Paris while Francois Graffard blamed the rain softened ground for MIDAK’s disappointing tenth place.

PORTA FORTUNA, despite missing Ascot, is still an intended runner in the Sussex at Goodwood for which she is 8s currently.

As has also been reported, concern is growing over the poor crowd numbers at Epsom this weekend. Both the Friday and Saturday crowds were disappointing with just 22,312 in attendance, a drop of 4,500 or more than 20% on last year. It wasn’t so long ago 100,000 would turn up for the race but times have changed and the new Epsom General Manager has a challenge to get the race back to the position in the popular consciousness it once enjoyed.

[stodge]

On then to Derby day. In truth, a low-key event with a disappointing turnout from the humans and only a fraction of the atmosphere the race used to have. The days of 100,000 or more on the Hill are long past and the authorities face a daunting task to rebuild the race. It lags far behind the National in terms of public sentiment and betting turnover.

To be fair, this year’s renewal had a strong field numerically at 19 but in terms of quality the late scratching of RULING COURT left it desperately short of Group 1 form. Having won both the big races on the Friday, Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore appeared to have another strong hand with favourite DELACROIX ridden by Ryan Moore and the Chester Vase winner LAMBOURN with Wayne Lordan. Dante winner PRIDE OF ARRAS looked the best of the home contenders while there were two French raiders in MITAK and NEW GROUND.

I won’t repost the race video as it has already been thoughtfully posted by @scooby3051.

A rough race as it often is with a big field and those caught up in the scrimmaging such as DELACROIX never had a chance. Many of the fancied horses caught wide got very little run and Wayne Lordan did what Emmet McNamara did on Serpentine in 2020 and that was to make it a stamina test and it worked.

In truth, LAMBOURN was never challenged and while LAZY GRIFF was always in shouting distance, he never really threatened. TENNESSEE STUD ran on to land some huge trifecta bets (kudos to top Irish analyst Kevin Blake who picked the first three) and the French horse NEW GROUND also ran on well but they were the only closers.

I thought both STANHOPE GARDENS and TORNADO ALERT ran with credit though neither quite got home to my eye.

PRIDE OF ARRAS was disappointing - the turn of foot we saw in the Dante just wasn’t there on this occasion and I wonder if he too might be a 2000m horse. Indeed the first two in the Dante filled the last two places and THE LION IN WINTER also ran no race.

It might be LAMBOURN is a very good staying 3-y-o but any quality has been drowned out by the sound of bursting bubbles and shattered reputations behind. He goes to the Irish Derby as a strong favourite but I’m not yet convinced this was anything other than a poor renewal. The time at 2 minutes 38.9 seconds was reasonable but no more.

The fact he alone of the top four in the market on the morning of the race ran to anywhere near what was expected speaks volumes. The ground seemed on the slow side of Good and quickly softened appreciably when rain came an hour after the race making me think Epsom had overwatered and done the surface no favours.

The only winner from all this is the Chester May meeting - the first two in the Chester Vase were the first two in the Derby and the Cheshire Oaks winner won the Oaks so the meeting has got a huge boost and it may be the pattern will look at moving the Vase to Group 2 and the Cheshire Oaks to Group 3 but a lot will depend on how the 3-y-o form plays out in the coming months.

It may be the fillies are a better group than the colts - it wouldn’t be the first time.

A classic weekend which leaves more questions than answers and a nagging sense “something” isn’t working. To be fair, the Coronation Cup was a tremendous race and the first two are international standard Group 1 horses without a doubt - remember JAN BRUEGHEL was heading for the Melbourne Cup last year.

Enterprising journalists are already throwing out ideas to re-configure the meeting including running the races in the evening but the problems may be more fundamental than that.

[Pete Lane]

Pride of Arras never looked happy in the running. 

The trainer thinks he'll turn the form around on a more conventional racecourse so I'm not prepared to write him off yet.

[Pete Lane]

From Racing Post:

Ralph Beckett has not ruled out a rematch with Saturday's impressive Derby winner Lambourn for his Pride Of Arras, who surprised his trainer when failing to handle the track in Saturday's Classic at Epsom. 

 

Sent off the 4-1 second favourite, Dante winner Pride Of Arras was caught on the outside of the field from his draw in stall 16 and looked all at sea on the downhill turn for home. Eased in the straight by jockey Rossa Ryan when his chance had gone, he eventually finished 17th of 18 runners.

 

Beckett is hoping the son of New Bay can return to form when he tackles a more conventional track, with the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby on June 29 – expected to be the next port of call for Lambourn – still in the melting pot for Pride Of Arras.  

[stodge]

As you might imagine, with Ascot on the horizon, it’s a low key weekend in England and Ireland and the big race is at Chantilly with the Diane over 2100m.

Charlie Fellowes has entered unfortunate or just plain robbed SHE’S PERFECT who was demoted after being first past the post in the Pouliches. There’s a big Aidan O’Brien entry though some may end up at Ascot and there can be supplementary entries made tomorrow so I’ll preview this with the final declarations on Friday.

[stodge]

Thunderstorms over northern France have turned the ground Soft at Chantilly ahead of Sunday’s Prix de Diane known as the French Oaks over the 2050m trip.

12 go to post with British and Irish raiders accounting for five of the field. I’ve already mentioned the controversial SHE’S PERFECT but Ed Walker, whose team are flying, saddles AMERICAN GAL who won a Listed race at Chantilly early in May but I’m not sure about her stamina on the soft turf. John and Thady Gosden saddle SAND GAZELLE who was favourite when third to QILIN QUEEN at Newbury.

QILIN QUEEN did nothing for the form in the English Oaks and she’s another for whom slow ground is an unknown.

BEDTIME STORY leads the Ballydoyle challenge - she won her first four as a juvenile and was being touted as a superstar but the wheels came off in the Moyglare. She didn’t run badly in the Pouliches on seasonal debut but the ground is a concern. Her stable companion, for all she’s probably there as a pacemaker, isn’t without a chance on ground she enjoys.

Colin Keane rides BETTER TOGETHER for his new Juddmonte retainer and this one finished just in front of BEDTIME STORY in the Pouliches and has claims.

My idea of the winner is Saint Alary (demoted to Group 2) winner GEZORA for whom trip and ground will be ideal. She won on soft and heavy ground as a juvenile.

 

[Swoopa]

She's  Perfect deserves to win(keep) a Grp 1. My only slight concern is the 2050m, which Charlie  Fellows will be hoping her dams side of the family (Galileo) kicks in! Ballydoyle are always hard to beat with their Irish raiders, but I quite fancy Gezora. The Almanzor French  filly has been previously placed behind Derby runner up Lazy Griff, which would put her into contention coming back to a fillies race.

[stodge]

I realise I never did the review of the Diane with all the Ascot nonsense.

Christophe Soumillon at this brilliant best as GEZORA scores emphatically from BEDTIME STORY. Soumillon got a lovelt midfield position with plenty of cover and used his experience of riding Chantilly to great effect.

The first time tongue strap probably helped as well but she's improved from the Group 3 Vanteaux to the Group 2 Saint Alary to winning a Group 1 and obviously her paddock value will have increased accordingly.

She's by Almanzor out of a Silver Hawk mare so you;d think she could get the Arc trip and needs plenty of juice in the ground.  Whether she'll go first for the Vermeille and then on to the Arc I don't know but that's the logical approach.

BEDTIME STORY did little wrong in defeat - Ryan Moore had decided to hold her up - perhaps her pacemaker MERRILY gave away earlier than he would have liked but in the run to the line BEDTIME STORY was always second best. She's 7s for the Falmouth and 12s for the Irish Oaks and the latter looks perhaps the more intriguing option.

Francois Graffard continues to dominate French racing and he had 1-3-4 here with GEZORA, CANKOURA and MANDANABA. CANKOURA got trapped out a little wide in the run so performed with credit while for me MANDANABA didn't quite see out the 2050m and may drop back to a mile for races at Deauville.

The British raiders AMERICAN GAL, SHE'S PERFECT and SAND GAZELLE all disappointed on the easier ground.

 

[stodge]

With Ascot (minus two reviews and a wrap up) fading into hisory, it's back to what passes for normal service on this thread.

A quiet weekend as you might expect in England with the feature the Northumberland Plate on the Tapeta at Newcastle on Saturday which is, I believe, a "win it and you're in it" race for the Melbourne Cup.

Ireland, on the other hand, has the Irish Derby Festival meeting at The Curragh which begins on Friday evening. The ground currently is Good, Good to Firm in places.

Saturday sees the Group 1 Pretty Polly over 2000m for which 15 have been entered. This is the first clash of the generations among the fillies and mares and five 3-y-o take on ten older horses. Among the former are Diane runner up BEDTIME STORY, English Oaks runner up WHIRL and Ribblesdale third CATALINA DELCARPIO.

The older horses are arguably led by KALPANA along with HIGHER LEAVES.

The Group 2 Airlie Stud over 1200m for the juvenile fillies has just nine entries including Albany third BALANTINA.

Sunday sees the Group 1 Irish Derby over 2400m for which ten have been entered headed by the first three from Epsom - LAMBOURN, the 4/5 favourite, LAZY GRIFF who is an astonishing 14/1 and TENNESSEE STUD who is 5/2. We also have PRIDE OF ARRAS who should find the conventional track much more to his liking and PUPPET MASTER who was a late scratching from the King Edward VII at Ascot.

The feature in France on Sunday is the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud over 2400m for which there are 25 entries headed by CALANDAGAN.

Much more on these races later in the week.

[Tauhei Notts]

Hey Stodge,

I have seen some controversy about the new conditions for the Windsor Castle Stakes.  I thought the proposed changes were good.  Not as harsh as the Chesham Stakes where the sire must have won over 10f or further.  Your comments would be appreciated.

My father imported a Chesham Stakes winner and he proved to be an abject failure at stud.  An Exbury colt named Smuggler.  But that was decades ago.

[stodge]

14 minutes ago, Tauhei Notts said:

Hey Stodge,

I have seen some controversy about the new conditions for the Windsor Castle Stakes.  I thought the proposed changes were good.  Not as harsh as the Chesham Stakes where the sire must have won over 10f or further.  Your comments would be appreciated.

My father imported a Chesham Stakes winner and he proved to be an abject failure at stud.  An Exbury colt named Smuggler.  But that was decades ago.

The Chesham over 7f has always been intended as a starting point for the future middle distance 3-y-o and the hope is the progeny of stallions who stayed beyond a mile would themselves get further.

POINT LONSDALE (2021) is an example of what a Chesham winner should be but the following year you had PINATUBO who barely got a mile. 

Historically, you didn't get many 7f 2-y-o races in June but now they are starting earlier and if it were me I'd run the Chesham as a mile juvenile race at the meeting as the first 2-y-o race over the distance with perhaps a bonus if the winner follows up in any mile and a half race or further at the following year's meeting.

As for the Windsor Castle, it's a strange race as it has to compete with the Norfolk and in pushing it up to 6f it now has to compete with the Albany and the Coventry. I can see an argument for restricting the race to progeny of stallions whose median auction price is low but we have other races which do that. We could make it a seller perhaps which would be no more out of place than the Queen Alexandra but as Eve Johnson Houghton rightly pointed out, the race works in its current guise and nearly always attracts a big field so if it's not broke, why try to fix it?

[stodge]

Looking ahead to the weekend and the main meeting is at The Curragh in Ireland where, following recent rain, the ground has eased to Good, Good to Yielding in places. A spell of light rain is expected at the County Laois venue tonight after which it should be dry - needless to say, Ireland won't get the heatwave southern England is promised (London is due 31c on Sunday, 33c on Monday and 31c on Tuesday).

Seven go in the Pretty Polly over 2000m and it looks a fascinating inter-generational clash between the 3-y-o WHIRL, who won the Musidora and was second in the English Oaks and the 4-y-o KALPANA who was third on her seasonal debut to LOS ANGELES (unlikely to be seen now before the autumn) in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and was set to run in the Prince of Wales at Ascot last week before being taken out due to the quick ground.

There's 5 lbs between them on ratings but because of weight-for-age and penalties, KALPANA has to give WHIRL 12 lbs. We know KALPANA enjoys soft turf having won the Fillies & Mares over 2400m on Champions Day at Ascot last year but the weight concession worries me and for all she is doubtless very good, I think she'll struggle to give the weight to the younger filly.

SURVIE was seventh in both last year's Vermeille and Arc and returned with a pleasing second to AVENTURE (second in both the Arc and Vermeille). On a line through LOS ANGELES, she isn't far behind KALPANA and she'd be a good each way call if there were eight runners but with just seven, I'm going to go with WHIRL.

The supporting Group 2 Airlie Stud over 1200m has just six juvenile fillies going to post. LADY IMAN is unbeaten in three including beating GREEN SENSE and SIGNORA in a Naas Group 3 last time and in all honesty neither of the placed horses boosted the form in the Albany at Ascot. LEBLON QUEEN won a modest Roscommon maiden on debut so it's probably best to stick with Aidan O'Brien's BEAUTIFY in the hope she'll build on her debut third.

The Grand Prix de Saint Cloud looks a fascinating race on Sunday and while the Irish Derby will have its takers (and I'll preview that with the final declarations tomorrow), I think the French race, for all it has just five runners, is the more intriguing.

Currently the ground is Soft but the heat is in northern France and the course is forecast 30c tomorrow and 33c on Saturday with sunny skies so I suspect it will dry back to somewhere near Good. 

Francois Graffard has two Group 1 class runners - CALANDAGAN and GOLIATH. The former was a spectacular winner of the King Edward VII at Ascot last year and chased home CITY OF TROY in the Juddmonte at York. He then chased home ANMAAT in the Champion at Newmarket, the Japanese horse DANON DECILE in the Sheema Classic and latterly JAN BRUEGHEL in the Coronation at Epsom. I think the quicker the ground the better - whether he prefers a decent gallop rather than something tactical I'm not sure.

GOLIATH was the shock winner of the King George at Ascot last summer beating subsequent Arc winner BLUESTOCKING. His form since hasn't lived up to that though his sixth in the Japan Cup was decent. He won a Group 3 last time but he has, for me, something to prove.

IRESINE is held by GOLIATH on past form and JUNKO is probably a pacemaker.

The filly AVENTURE might beat them all - she was a close fourth in the Diane last year but her second places in both the Vermeille and the Arc were top class form and she's won both her starts this term including the Group 2 Corrida last time. I suspect the end objective is a return to the Arc in October - who'd have thunk it? - and this is a big step on that road. I think she might be able to upset CALANDAGAN but this is one to savour and with the Irish Derby two races with considerable significance for big races later in the year.

 

[stodge]

A developing story in today's Racing Post (apart from Oisin Murphy being in trouble again) is the impact of the World Pool on horse racing.

Last week Royal Ascot saw the equivalent of £150 million of turnover into the World Pool during the five days of the meeting and a share of that will find its way back into British racing with turnover up every day and roughly £35 million alone wagered on the second day. Last autumn, it was announced British racecourses had benefitted by up to £50 million from World Pool payments during 2024.

However, there is concern courses are more interested in attracting World Pool money than on preserving the quality and diversity and indeed tradition of their own cards. Sunday's Irish Derby card at The Curragh features the Group 1 Irish Derby but the other eight races are two Listed events and six handicaps. Traditional Derby supporting races like the Railway and the Anglesey have been moved to other meetings as it is believed World Pool punters want to play on handicaps rather the conditions races.

The view is the home punters and those attending the meeting are being short changed to provide betting opportunities for punters in Asia. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

[stodge]

We have the final declarations through for some decent racing on Sunday in Ireland and France.

In Ireland, ten go for the Irish Derby over 2400m which carries a first prize of 712,500 euros. 

As expected, the first three from Epsom re-oppose. LAMBOURN was a convincing winner of the English Derby handing out a bigger beating to LAZY GRIFF then he had at Chester and while you'd never describe either Chester or Epsom as "conventional" tracks to expect LAZY GRIFF to find nearly four lengths is a big ask but I do expect LAZY GRIFF to run well.

TENNESSEE STUD was a length behind LAZY GRIFF at Epsom and found improvement for his first run at the trip. He's been put in as second favourite to LAMBOURN but it's hard to see him finding five lengths on the Derby winner.

GREEN IMPACT is a fascinating runner from the Jessie Harrington yard - he beat English Derby favourite DELACROIX twice last year including in a Group 2 at Leopardstown and returned with a sixth in the English 2000 Guineas which was highly promising, He won a small Listed race three weeks ago and should be cherry ripe for this. On breeding, they'll be hoping the stamina from the dam's side will come to the fore and he looks a serious contender at 7s.

In addition to LAMBOURN, Aidan O'Brien runs four other contenders including Lingfield Derby Trial winner PUPPET MASTER and a couple, including Queen's Vase fourth SHACKLETON, who are likely to be there to set a strong gallop.

PRIDE OF ARRAS was very good when winning the Dante but was well held at Epsom and I'm not sure he'll be ideally supported by a strong pace though he has his own pacemaker in SIR DINADAN.

Two yards - Aidan O'Brien and Ralph Beckett - both running pace setters suggests it'll be a stamina race and that will be ideal for LAMBOURN and LAZY GRIFF and expose any flaws in the other leading contenders.

It wouldn't susprise me if the first two at Epsom were the first two again at The Curragh and while I expect LAMBOURN to win, I've had a play on LAZY GRIFF at 12s each way.

Five are confirmed in the Grand Prix de Saint Cloud over the 2400m for the older horses. I'm still of the view AVENTURE will surprise CALANDAGAN and GOLIATH in what looks an intriguing race.