Jack Hobbs has been installed an odds-on favourite for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh later this month, but the Epsom runner-up is unlikely to have to face last Friday’s Oaks runner-up Legatissimo.
Paddy Power make the David Wachman-trained star a 7-1 shot for Derby glory, but Wachman describes her as “most unlikely” to take on the colts over a mile and a half.
“I would say it is most unlikely she’ll run in the Irish Derby. She seems very well after Epsom, but I would say a race like the Pretty Polly Stakes or the Nassau might be the way we’ll go with her,” he said.
Both the Pretty Polly and the Nassau at Goodwood, are run over a mile and a quarter.
Main danger
Another 1,000 Guineas winner, Pleascach, heroine of the Irish 1,000 Guineas for
Jim Bolger
, is rated the main danger to Jack Hobbs (10-11) by Powers, who make her 5-1 second favourite. They also make French Derby runner-up Highland Reel a 7-1 shot, a point ahead of stable companion, Giovanni Canaletto.
Willie Mullins unveils an intriguing new French recruit at Roscommon, where Gangster can land the spoils in a maiden hurdle.
Useful hurdler
The five-year-old is half-brother to Ascot Gold Cup winner Rite Of Passage, who was also a very useful hurdler for
Dermot Weld
and twice placed at the Cheltenham festival.
Gangster had two runs over hurdles in the spring of 2014 and showed promise in the second when runner up on very soft ground at Auteuil.
Mullins has two other declarations at the meeting and Prince d'Aubrelle looks a significant bumper entry considering his February debut came on very different conditions to the likely quick going.
