Sport : Horse Racing

Camelot tops Curragh contenders

25th June 2012, 01:26pm

Camelot: A hot favourite for the Irish Derby

Camelot: A hot favourite for the Irish Derby

Aidan O'Brien's unbeaten Camelot appears among 11 confirmations for Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at The Curragh.

The winner of the 2000 Guineas and most recently the Derby at Epsom, Camelot is set to be a hot favourite in a bid for his third Classic before a likely attempt at completing the British Triple Crown in the St Leger.

The most notable absentee was Jim Bolger's Dewhurst hero Parish Hall, who has still not appeared this season, and his trainer will have to rely on Ballysax and Derrinstown Trial winner Light Heavy.

O'Brien can also choose from Learn, Astrology, Daddy Long Legs, Father Of Science and Imperial Monarch while John Oxx has three of the remaining runners, headed by Sea The Stars' half-brother Born To Sea, who was fourth over a mile in the St James's Palace Stakes.

Akeed Mofeed, not seen since finishing second in the Beresford Stakes at two, and Chester Vase third Call To Battle are his other two.

Dermot Weld's progressive and lightly-raced Speaking Of Which completes an all-Irish field.Curragh general manager Paul Hensey is wary about potential rain on Thursday, even if the forecast in Kildare is largely favourable.

He said on Monday: "We had a nice, dry day yesterday and again today and I walked the course this morning and was pleasantly surprised how well the track has taken all the rain we've had recently.

"It's yielding to soft at the moment, but I'd expect it to have dried to yielding by the end of the day.

"We'll be watching the forecast closely for the end of the week. We might have light showers on Wednesday but the key day is Thursday when there is a band of rain moving across and we'll have to see if we get it.

"The rest of the forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday then looks good."

The Derby is being held in the evening for the first time, with the big race itself due off at 7.40pm.

Hensey said: "We did extensive promotion on pre-sales and corporate hospitality sold out a month ago, so much so that we created some extra facilities.

"So it's very positive from that end of things and advanced ticket sales are well up, but we won't know how we do in terms of crowd until the day itself."

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