Irish Derby 2017 Preview

This year’s Irish Derby at the Curragh takes place this Saturday evening at 5.20. It’s headed by this year’s Epsom Derby winner Wings of Eagles for AP O’Brien. He won the English Derby in quite comfortable style in the end coming from the back off a ferocious pace.

The pace that day was set by a horse I fancy as a live each way contender this time around and that’s Douglas Macarthur also for AP O’Brien. He set a lightening pace at Epsom and did remarkably well to finish where he did following that. With that in mind he might just be used to more effect here and could well sneak his way into the frame.

French raider Waldgeist certainly can’t be ruled out and a lot of money has come for Andre Fabre’s runner this week, however the one i’ll be siding with is Cracksman for John Gosden and Pat Smullen. He ran in snatches at Epsom and didn’t seem to handle the track all that well resulting in him looking beat someway out. He did however stay on very well to finish third that day. The Curragh is a much more straight forward track than Epsom and I think he will of come on massively from that run and a big showing is certainly on the cards.The negative for him is obviously the tactics that the mass of O’Brien horses will use against him but I think he’s the makings of a quality animal which could show on Saturday, he’s currently trading at a general 10/3.