Irish Derby Weekend: Harzand's task easier with no Ranger

The Irish Derby is the feature race in Ireland this weekend, and it's been won champion trainer by Aidan O’Brien a staggering 11 times, including seven years in a row between 2006 and 2012. O’Brien has declared four horses this time around, though he’ll have to do without his Derby runner-up US Army Ranger who did not scope clean on Wednesday morning.

US Army Ranger was favourite for the Irish Derby at the time of his withdrawl, and his absense leaves the door more open for his Epsom conqueror Harzand to become the sixth colt to do the English and Irish Derby double this century. Harzand most a convincing winner on the Downs, following in the footsteps of his sire Sea The Stars, and his trainer Dermot Weld immediately nominated this race as his next port of call. However, Weld has expressed concerns that the Derby left its mark on the 128p-rated Harzand, while the colt also had to be treated for an infection picked up not long after Derby. He’ll again need to overcome a late scare to win a classic, just as he did at Epsom, having spread a plate in transit on the way to the track.

Conversely, Aidan O’Brien will probably have been chomping at the bit to have another crack at Harzand. US Army Ranger would have undoubtedly been O'Brien's preferred option to try and reverse the form, but Derby third Idaho is not a bad substitute. Idaho hit the front two furlongs at Epsom out but couldn’t quite keep his effort going all the way to the line, beaten two and three-quarter lengths by Harzand in the end (albeit a longer distance than had been between the two colts in the Ballysax Stakes in April). Idaho’s stablemates Port Douglas and Shogun were both well held in the Derby, the former having been used as a pacemaker, and a bigger threat to the front two could be the sole British challenger, Red Verdon, who met some trouble when sixth in the Derby and remains with potential.

The Pretty Polly Stakes is the other Group 1 in Ireland this weekend (on Sunday) and will feature the 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner Minding against just four others. Aidan O’Brien’s very smart filly has 6 lb to play with over her nearest form rival Lucida and will surely take all the beating, with the drop back to a mile and a quarter unlikely to pose any problem whatsoever. The field is completed by Bocca Baciata and the British raiders Koora and Speedy Boarding, who finished second and fourth respectively in the Middleton Stakes at York in May (the last-named filly has since won a French Group 2).

There’s more pattern action at the Curragh this weekend in the form of the Group 2 Railway Stakes for two-year-olds on Saturday and the Group 2 Curragh Cup for stayers on Sunday. A win for Aidan O'Brien in the latest Railway Stakes would take him to within one of equalling Vincent O'Brien's 14 wins in the race, while the current master of Ballydoyle has won the Curragh Cup four times, including the last three with Ernest Hemingway (twice) and Bondi Beach.  

Finally, the opening juvenile maiden at the Curragh on Sunday is always a race to watch closely and has featured the debuts of subsequent classic winners Australia and Gleneagles in the last three years.