There’s little Aidan O’Brien hasn’t accomplished in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby but the in-form trainer is examining the possibility of trying to win this Saturday’s €1 million Curragh classic with a filly for the first time.
Tuesday earned a free slot in Ireland’s premier classic by winning the Oaks at Epsom earlier this month. The Oaks winner gets their entry or supplementary entry fee refunded if they run in the race as part of the Curragh’s ‘Win & You’re In’ scheme.
O’Brien confirmed on Sunday he is looking at the possibility of supplementing Tuesday at Tuesday’s acceptance stage and letting her tackle the colts at the weekend.
With the Epsom Derby winner Desert Crown appearing to be unlikely to become the 19th colt to complete the Epsom-Curragh double, an appearance by a proven classic winner like Tuesday would be a significant and intriguing boost to the race.
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The last filly to beat the boys in the Irish Derby was the Frankie Dettori-ridden Balanchine in 1994. Salsabil also won four years previously but she was the first filly to win it since Gallinaria in 1900.
O’Brien has won the Irish Derby a record 14 times in all, the first 25 years ago with Desert King.
“Anchorage, Changingoftheguard, Cougar, Sussex, Temple Of Artemis and Waterville are all in the mix too,” O’Brien said on Sunday. “But we will decide after work on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
After being placed in both the Newmarket and Curragh 1,000 Guineas, Tuesday secured her trainer a record 41st English classic with a thrilling defeat of Emily Upjohn in the Oaks at Epsom earlier this month.
Her potential Derby opposition is likely to be headed by Westover, an unlucky third to Desert Crown at Epsom. He will try to emulate Hurricane Lane who progressed to Irish Derby success on the back of finishing third at Epsom.
Other subsequent Irish Derby champions to have finished third at Epsom include Dylan Thomas in 2006 and Alamshar in 2003.
The composition of the race will become clearer at Tuesday’s critical acceptance stage where Curragh officials will keep fingers crossed for other potential starters to take up the classic challenge.
They could include Lional who won the Cocked Hat Stakes at Goodwood last month but missed out on both Epsom and last week’s Royal Ascot action.
Aidan O’Brien was leading trainer at Royal Ascot for an 11th time with five winners and memorably brought up his 900th Group/Graded race career winner when Broome landed Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes.
It also took him to 81 Royal Ascot winners in all, one shy of Sir Michael Stoute’s record.
“It is marvellous – a great reflection of the all hard work by the team at home,” said O’Brien, who was out of luck with Toy in Sunday’s French Oaks won by Nashwa at Chantilly.
His sons Donnacha and Joseph famously teamed up to win the Irish Derby race with Latrobe in 2018 and both could saddle their own chances on Saturday.
Hannibal Barca earned a spot with a Gallinule Stakes success on his first start for Joseph while his sibling has indicated Piz Badile, 12th at Epsom, will take his chance too.
Another potential local contender is Paddy Twomey’s French Claim, a wide-margin winner at Cork before finishing third to Stone Age in the Leopardstown Derby Trial.
Watering has begun at the Curragh ahead of a first Irish Derby to take place in front of unrestricted crowds since 2019.
The course chief executive Brian Kavanagh said on Sunday: “We put a little bit of water on it last week. It’s a pretty dry forecast up to the middle of the week and then it’s more unsettled. The ground will be lovely. We haven’t used this track since the Oaks last year.
“The straight took the first seven meetings of the year very well so generally the ground will be lovely.”
In other news the French Derby winner Vadeni is set to get his own supplementary entry for next month’s Coral Eclipse at Sandown.
