Saturday 26th June 2021

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Irish Derby 2021

A big welcome to my preview for this week which is going to be centered around the Irish Derby which is set to take place at the Curragh this Saturday at 3.45. The feature event is a Group 1 contest that’s ridden over a distance of a mile and five furlongs and has a pot of 570,000 euros to the winner. In recent times Aidan O’Brien has taken a grip on the race and the Ballydoyle master has taken the last two renewals with Santiago and Sovereign respectively.

Jumping straight in with this year’s race I think it could well be another one for Aidan this time with market leader High Definition, who’s the mount of Ryan Moore. He was a Group 2 winner last season when getting up late to win the Beresford Stakes at this track, and was well fancied for the English Derby before being put away for a crack at this. He made his reappearance this term in the Dante at York where he went onto to finish third after looking like needing the outing to sharpen him up, which isn’t a rarity for this yard. This Galileo colt strikes me as a horse that could do better over further but clearly has a lot of class and I think will take a lot of beating here. In true Ballydoyle style they have several other runners in the race, these include French Group 1 winner Van Gogh, Arturo Toscanini, Matchless and interestingly Wordsworth, who was seen just a week ago when finishing second in the Queens Vase at Royal Ascot where he went off the 100/30 favourite.

Who are the main rivals? There are a few UK raiders who have bold claims and could serve it up to the market leader, most notably Mojo Star and Hurricane Lane, the Epsom Derby second and third. Another to note of the UK challenge would be the Martyn Meade trained Lone Eagle, who’s the mount of Frankie Dettori. Of the home challenge Jim Bolger’s Irish Guineas winner Mac Swiney will be a popular play with each-way punters, the New Approach colt was last seen when finishing fourth at Epsom and will likely give his running once again in a top-level event.