Walker 'massively excited' about Derby chance with English King

Investec Derby (Group 1) | 1m4f | 3yo | ITV/RTV

English King may have been Derby favourite for the last month but nobody appreciates the size of his task better than his trainer.

Ed Walker has such reverence for the Derby, which he calls the most difficult race in the world to win and also the most important, that he has never even had a runner. He has not had a colt he felt worthy of it. Until now.

'I'm not worried' - draw no issue as relaxed Ed Walker enjoys Derby pressure

"I always vowed that I would not run a horse in the Derby if he didn't deserve his place," said the trainer, who has held a licence for nearly ten years.

It is fair to say that English King has done enough to earn this clash with 2,000 Guineas winner Kameko, having carried the Stradivarius colours of Bjorn Nielsen to a most impressive victory in the Lingfield Derby Trial on just the fifth day of the delayed season.

"I am massively excited by English King and I would not swap him for anything else," Walker said. "I know that sounds mad with a Guineas winner in the field but I wouldn't. I think he will have learnt a lot at Lingfield and hopefully he can cruise round Tattenham Corner.

"Whether he is good enough we will find out but he ticks an awful lot of boxes. I think that is why he is at the top of the market, because he ticks all the boxes."

Frankie Dettori will be riding English King for the first time in public, having replaced Tom Marquand who was on board at Lingfield.

But the partnership got to know each other at home in Lambourn last week and Walker said: "Frankie just wanted to come down and have a feel of the horse. He really wanted to get inside the horse's head, which is a mark of Frankie's professionalism and he was very happy.

"English King has come out of Lingfield really well and it was the perfect prep. I always wanted to go to Lingfield because I think it mimics Epsom really well."

That Lingfield success came on the back of victory in a Newcastle maiden last autumn but it did not surprise his trainer, who said: “He only does what he is asked to do at home, he is not the flashiest work horse, but he was very impressive at Newcastle and that was solid form, so we knew that he was a horse who was going to turn it on at the track.

"He is one of those horses who has got everything in terms of how he relaxes, stays, travels and can quicken off a high tempo."

Murphy aiming for more Classic glory on Kameko

There are plenty of ways to win a Derby, but when you are on the 2,000 Guineas winner there is one obvious place to start.

Oisin Murphy knows Kameko is the class horse of the race. As a dual Group 1 winner at a mile with question marks over stamina the obvious thing to do is ride for a turn of foot.

"It’s a big field and he’s a Classic winner," said Murphy. "Hopefully he can have a good trip and if he stays he’s probably the fastest horse in the race."

That 'if' is the big question when it comes to Kameko. He falls into that 'if he stays, he wins' category, but the Derby is littered with Guineas winners who were not up to the task.

Camelot, in 2012, was the last to do the double. Since then only Dawn Approach and Saxon Warrior have even tried while Australia and Masar failed in the Guineas but more than made up for it in the Derby.

It is the question asked of every Guineas winner, and as owner Sheikh Fahad said: "He hit the line strong and the sectionals say the final furlong was his best, which gives you hope that a mile and a quarter is within his grasp. A mile and a half...you don't know, but I'd rather find out in the Derby than not."

Kameko is not Andrew Balding's only chance of joining his father Ian on the Derby roll of honour. Khalifa Sat may be bigger in the betting, but the Cocked Hat winner accounted for the reopposing Emissary by a neck at Goodwood and has vastly fewer stamina doubts given that was over just a furlong shorter than the Derby.

The level of assistance he will receive is not up for debate either, with Tom Marquand snaffled up. The jockey said: "I’m obviously really looking forward to my first Derby ride.

"He did everything right at Goodwood, which itself is a bit of an awkward track and hopefully that’s a pointer to him handling Epsom okay. He was extremely tough and showed a good attitude so hopefully gives us a good run for our money."

The question for Khalifa Sat is whether he has the same class as Kameko, for Kameko whether he has Khalifa Sat's stamina. Together they would make one hell of a Derby horse, perhaps individually they might anyway.

O'Brien: We always thought Mogul was our Derby horse

Aidan O’Brien unleashes six on the Investec Derby as he targets a record eighth win in the race, with Ryan Moore riding Mogul from the powerful Ballydoyle team.

Moore has not been on O’Brien’s two Derby winners, Wings Of Eagles and Anthony Van Dyck, since stepping into the number one role in 2015, but he was on the favourites when the trainer triumphed then and was on the colt who performed best from O’Brien’s team every other year.

O’Brien is confident we will see a different Mogul to the one who was a disappointing fourth in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

O’Brien said: “We always thought Mogul was going to be our Derby horse. He is a big, strong round horse who takes a bit of getting fit. He's made like a big powerful miler and the plan was always to get two runs into him before the Derby, but obviously that wasn't to be.

“He ran a lovely race at Ascot and got a little tired. The risk of going to the best trial was that he was going to get beaten but, with our eye on the Derby, we felt it was better to have him come forward for the Derby rather than just win a trial.

“Often it can be dangerous overfacing horses, as there is a risk they can go backwards instead of forwards, but knowing this horse, he's a big, tough and hardy individual who has never gone back from anything we've asked him to do yet.

“You can't say that he's the clear pick, as you just can never tell with this type of horse, and a lot of the others have never run over this trip before. They are all coming from different profiles but we've been very happy with Mogul.”

The rest of O’Brien’s team is headed by Hampton Court winner Russian Emperor, with Irish 2,000 Guineas second Vatican City also prominent in the Derby betting.

“You'd think looking at Russian Emperor that he'd definitely get the trip but he's never run any further than a mile and a quarter,” said O’Brien. “He's by Galileo so he should stay, and he's out of a very good Fastnet Rock mare who got a mile and a quarter, so all of that suggests he should. Everything has gone well with him since Ascot.

“Vatican City ran in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and that race was probably a bit more slowly run than we would have liked. He came out of the race very well and we're happy to let him go and see if he stays or not.”

Wide-margin Curragh winner Serpentine, Mythical and Amhran Na Bhfiann complete O’Brien’s squad of six. He said: “Serpentine stays, we think, and we always thought he'd get a mile and a half. He's happy to go forward.

“Mythical is the same. We were disappointed with his run at the Curragh. He got a little bit tired but he has made good progress since and he’s a very interesting horse.

“Amhran Na Bhfiann is a horse we've always loved. He's a massive big horse so we've always had to be gentle with him. Ideally, we would have given him the same campaign that we were hoping to do with Mogul, in that we would have liked to get two runs into him. He should get the trip and is also interesting.”

What they say

Hugo Palmer, trainer of Emissary
In my view he’s got all the attributes an Epsom horse needs, but he has to improve a great deal. That said every horse apart from the Guineas winner needs to improve a great deal to win the race and the Guineas winner needs to stay. I’m confident my horse will stay, he’s very balanced, a strong-travelling horse and he’s got a very good mind. He ticks a lot of boxes, it’s whether he’s good enough.

Jessica Harrington, trainer of Gold Maze
He got no cover in the Irish Derby but he's drawn 16 here so he should get the inside rail and everything will rush up around him, hopefully. If it all works out and he gets a good position we're hoping he can run well.

Oliver Cole, co-trainer of Highland Chief
Today’s canter went well and he seems in good form. We expect him to run a big race. He’s very exciting, he’s unexposed and we don’t know how good he could be yet but we’ll find out tomorrow.

Harry Bentley, rider of Max Vega
I’m very much looking forward to the ride. I’m happy with the draw in stall seven. It looks a wide-open race.

David Simcock, trainer of Mohican Heights
We’ll enjoy the day and it is a roll of the dice but I’d like to think with a strongly run race and being better for a run he won’t disgrace himself.

John Gosden, trainer of Worthily
He's a horse we've always liked and won well over a mile and a quarter at Newbury. He may be a bit like the rest of his family who ran in the Derby but were more Leger types. He's short on experience as ideally we would have got another run into him but there was no racing in April or May when that would have been in the plans.

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