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Main Sequence not the only focus as Derby expectancy grows for Lanigans

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Their second child is due within days, but David Lanigan yesterday reported his wife and secretary to be still diligently at her desk in the office of their new stables in Lambourn. Should things start happening sooner than anticipated, Amy knows just what to expect – above all on Saturday, when her husband will have no less a distraction than an unbeaten colt in the Investec Derby. "For our first-born, she drove herself to the hospital," Lanigan confessed. "I joined her there after third lot."

McCabe's Caspar Netscher strikes a Classic blow for Camelot's also-rans

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Camelot so bestrides the Investec Derby that some bookmakers now offer odds that would qualify him as the hottest favourite since Tudor Minstrel was beaten at 4-7 in 1947. Only 11 other colts were left in the race yesterday, four of them from the same stables in Co Tipperary, and he is just 8-13 with Betfred to win on Saturday.

Equestrianism: French shows Olympic form

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Piggy French underlined her Olympic selection credentials with a commanding performance at the Houghton International Horse Trials in Norfolk yesterday.

Samitar is a Classic first for Harley and Channon

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

For once yesterday, the spotlight was off Aidan O'Brien, who had taken a record-equalling 27th Irish Classic on Saturday, and on to a young man winning his first of any stripe. Step forward last year's apprentice champion Martin Harley, victorious on the 12-1 chance Samitar in the 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh in a finish dominated by outsiders.

Power surges to Irish Guineas glory

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

What you see is not always what you get, but perhaps at Newmarket earlier this month it should have been. In the parade ring before the 2,000 Guineas, the Aidan O'Brien-trained Power had outshone his rivals, including stablemate and subsequent winner Camelot, in terms of condition and apparent well-being only to be thoroughly eclipsed by all bar one in the race. Three weeks on, in the Irish version of the Classic, the son of Oasis Dream put the record straight with a performance which this time matched his looks.

Daddy too long even if Hall is in the next parish

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

He may be a stickler for doing things right, but that does not prevent Jim Bolger making up his own rules. Quite the reverse, in fact, and such is his record that few would presume to tell him that he might be pushing convention too far in the extraordinary schedule he has proposed for Parish Hall.

Knight hands over reins to be with best mate

Thu, 24 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

If some of the circumstances of her retirement seem fairly poignant, then at least Henrietta Knight has contrived a sequel that confounds convention in satisfyingly consistent fashion. For the trainer who won so many hearts in her oddball partnership with Terry Biddlecombe has arranged to transfer most of their horses to the care of another hobbling, plain-talking veteran of debilitating sporting triumph, in Mick Channon.

Morrison follows his Star on parallel path to Oaks success

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

In his youth, Hughie Morrison saw his father breed two Oaks winners from the same mare, so he could hardly be astounded if two candidates for the same Classic happened to emerge from one stable.

Tregoning convinced Derby will reveal dash in Cavaleiro

Tue, 22 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The man who saddled the 2006 winner yesterday resolved to ride the crest of a wave back to the Investec Derby on Saturday week. Marcus Tregoning, trainer of Sir Percy, has sent out five winners from nine runners since Cavaleiro finished third on his reappearance in the Lingfield Trial. And while he did consider a less demanding option at Goodwood on Friday, Tregoning anticipates so much improvement from the colt that he now intends to wait for the big one.

Bolger sets Parish Hall Classic challenge en route to Camelot

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Though the race falls only a week before Epsom, the Abu Dhabi Irish 2,000 Guineas on Saturday will not only measure the form of Camelot but could also produce an 11th-hour threat to the odds-on favourite for the Investec Derby.

I'll Have Another fires rich dreams of US Triple Crown

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Whatever the fate of the 2,000 Guineas winner Camelot at Epsom in 12 days' time, and whatever his destiny afterwards, at least one Triple Crown dream is still alive. The Kentucky Derby hero I'll Have Another followed up in the second leg of the US version, the Preakness Stakes, on Saturday night and is now bound for the third, next month's Belmont Stakes.

Fabulous Frankel has both heart and mind

Sat, 19 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

There are times when you would give a great deal for Superman's powers, with X-ray vision top of the list here yesterday. For sure Frankel, rated the best thoroughbred on the planet, is a good-looking specimen, a horse with explosive muscular power and fluidity and grace of movement. But then, there are other equally well-made thoroughbreds without a trace of this one's talent.

Frankel primed to join the all-time greats

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

He has nothing to fear but fear itself. The very fact that Frankel returns at all, of course, must be counted auspicious in that regard.

Bonfire to face old flame in Derby

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

One of the British Turf's most gratifying rituals is to observe the runners strolling around the parade ring before its greatest race. This time round, however, it may prove so revealing that the actual running of the Investec Derby could itself obtain a somewhat ceremonial quality. For if the herd leader is usually identified at the Epsom winning post, some subtle obeisance might be discernible even before the colts are saddled a fortnight tomorrow.

Fugue tunes up for Oaks challenge

Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The theme stated so boldly over its opening bars may yet recur inexorably through the Classic season, but some ears are beginning to pick up a developing counterpoint. Having already won the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, horses trained by Aidan O'Brien dominate betting on both Epsom Classics. Yesterday, however, the Ballydoyle trainer brought an odds-on favourite to York for an unceremonious thrashing in the last major trial for the Investec Oaks, and today he will find out where he stands with the two colts closest to Camelot in the Derby market. If either Bonfire or Mandaean remotely approaches the performance of The Fugue, certainly, O'Brien will know that horses trained on British soil do not intend to cede its most precious turf without a fight.

Barzalona passes Dettori in pecking order

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Yet again the strength in depth of the Classic generation at Ballydoyle is inviting invidious comparisons with the Turf's other superpowers. At Godolphin, in particular, a recent mood of renewal was abruptly suspended after both the first two Classics were won by their great rivals. Godolphin failed even to muster a runner in the 2,000 Guineas, while its two fancied fillies in the 1,000 Guineas both finished tailed off. The stakes will be uncomfortably high, then, when the unbeaten Mandaean measures his Investec Derby prospects in the Betfred Dante Stakes at York tomorrow. And there is commensurate significance, surely, in the fact that the imported colt will be ridden by another new recruit from France.

Camelot can turn dreams into reality

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:00:41 GMT

In the 10 years since his second consecutive Derby winner, Aidan O'Brien has saddled the runner-up five times.

Jim Bolger weighs up Light Heavy's Derby prospects after hefty win

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It is hard to say which seemed more familiar here yesterday – the way a horse prepared by Jim Bolger ripped off the gloves so willingly, in an unsparing duel for the Derrinstown Derby Trial, or the gently mocking deportment of his trainer in the winner's enclosure afterwards.

Bolger weighs up Light Heavy's Derby prospects after hefty win

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Main Sequence and Vow display Classic credentials

Sat, 12 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Of all the courses that stage eliminators for the Derby and Oaks, Lingfield is the one that generally provides the best facsimile of the tricky rollercoaster contours encountered in the premier Classics. Yesterday, however, the Surrey track provided a test that was somewhat "Epsom lite" after waterlogging prompted the trials' switch from the turf course to the less demanding all-weather track.

Main Sequence one to follow in Lingfield trial

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The track for all seasons comes to the rescue today, when the Classic trials at Lingfield are switched from a saturated turf course to the adjacent all-weather circuit. And while they duly lose much of their pertinence to Epsom, usually ascribed to the hill, for much the same reason they are arguably rather stronger than in recent years.

Gutsy Mickdaam gives Fahey Derby prospects

Thu, 10 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

An odds-on favourite already bestrides the Epsom betting, and the flat-out success of Mickdaam in the trial staged across the mire here yesterday did nothing to alter that.

McCain proves local hero with Cup one-two

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It may take Wayne Rooney a little longer to get the point of the Roodee, having peered through a deluge to see his first-ever runner finish last in the opening race here yesterday. When his trainer warned that Pippy was "in at the deep end", the Manchester United striker could not have realised how literally that prediction might be construed. For other local heroes, however, even so soggy a first day contrived only to intensify the addiction of this meeting.

Rooney may not score but Chester is always a winner

Tue, 08 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

For all the delights that qualify the next three afternoons at Chester as a defining ritual of the British Turf, it must be admitted that the city's racecourse was not especially designed with rain in mind. But then nor was it obviously designed for horseracing, either, this dizzy circuit crammed between the city walls and the River Dee – and that does not stop it being a roaring success.

Pacemaker upsets St Nicholas Abbey and Aidan O'Brien

Mon, 07 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Whether you are a mouse, a man or an O'Brien, your best-laid schemes can go agley. Young Joseph of the latter ilk may have given Camelot an inch-perfect ride to take the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday, but two days later at the Curragh he for once seemed to get the fractions wrong on one of the Ballydoyle older stars, St Nicholas Abbey.