2022 Irish Derby Tips
Westover is a horse with strong looking credentials. If you compare the Irish Derby betting odds, then you can find that the Ralph Beckett-trained is the market leader and the three-year-old claimed a victory on 23 April when obliging at Sandown Park.
It was a win in the bet365 Classic Trial to really cement his credentials and the horse then ran a blinder in the English Derby when finishing third at massive betting odds of 25/1. If it hadn’t been for the fact that 150/1 shot Hoo Ya Mal finished second, more would have been made of the former’s performance.
Therefore, the omens look good for Westover considering he beat horses such as Changingoftheguard and Stone Age on that occasion, although the latter will be bidding to frank the form at The Curragh and Aidan O’Brien is no stranger to saddling winners when it comes to this race.
Between 2006 and 2012, O’Brien was utterly dominant, while the Irish handler has more recently obliged with Sovereign and Santiago. Stone Age could be another winner beginning with the letter ‘S’ and the sixth-placed finish in the English Derby had been preceded by wins at Navan and Leopardstown.
Indeed, Stone Age might be more comfortable when it comes to racing in Ireland, with the Leopardstown win coming in the form of a Derby Trial Stakes and Ryan Moore coasted to a five-and-half-length win which suggests that a return to the winners’ enclosure could be on the cards here.
The 2019 Irish Derby takes place on Saturday 29 July, with ten horses set to line up for this Group 1 encounter at The Curragh.
Six of the horses entered for the race will be trained by Aidan O’Brien, with the Irish handler fresh from several successes at Royal Ascot and his strongest idea of a winner is Anthony Van Dyck.
The horse was previously successful in the Epsom Derby last month and it has now emerged that Ryan Moore will be on board the three-year-old, with the jockey having had the pick of O’Brien’s horses when it came to deciding which one to ride.
The John Magnier-owned horse has been a class act on the racecourse in 2019, with the runner having won an exciting renewal of the Epsom Derby when narrowly edging out Madhmoon by half a length, with lots of other horses finishing fast.
Before this, Anthony Van Dyck won a Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield, with Ryan Moore having ridden the horse on that occasion and he’s clearly developed an understanding which could see them claim the spoils in Ireland.
The horse has shown tremendous progressions this season considering he was beaten in his final three starts of 2018, with O’Brien confirming that his charge is the number one in the stable for the Irish Derby and explaining that is why Ryan Moore is on board.
"Ryan always rides the number-one horse and that will obviously be Anthony Van Dyck," said O'Brien, who has won the Irish Derby an amazing 12 times.
O’Brien’s first Irish Derby win occurred in 1997 when Desert King obliged with a victory, while he has more recently won in 2017 when Capri completed the dozen wins.
The bookmakers have the 2019 Irish Derby as a potential three-horse race, with Madhmoon available at 5/2 for the re-match at The Curragh following such a near-miss at Epsom where it did look as though the Kevin Prendergast horse was going to get up.
The big question mark with the Hamdan Al Maktoum-owned horse is whether it simply lacks the quality to win big races after failing to land victory in any of his three starts to date this season.
Madhmoon was pipped at the post by Anthony Van Dyck at Epsom, while he had previously missed out in the 2000 Guineas when finishing fourth behind Magna Grecia, King Of Change and Skardu.
Madhmoon was sent off as the 4/6 favourite in a 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown, with the horse touched off by Never No More, another Aidan O’Brien horse.
Broome is the other runner expected to fiercely contend for the Irish Derby and this is the second choice O’Brien horse in the race, with Donnacha O’Brien expected to be on board this three-year-old.
Broome recorded a victory at Leopardstown in April and returned to the same track a month later to win another race, although he could only manage fourth place in the Epsom Derby.
Strangely enough, despite Aidan O’Brien’s twelve victories in the Irish Derby, it should be noted that Ryan Moore has never ridden a winner in this race, with the star jockey having been on the “wrong horse” on a number of occasions.
Moore was on board Sir Dragonet in the recent English Derby which allowed Seamie Heffernan to ride Anthony Van Dyck into the winners’ enclosure, although the former will be hoping he has the honour on Saturday.
“The intended ones are Broome [fourth at Epsom] and Anthony Van Dyck and a couple of others. Sovereign [10th at Epsom] could run and Norway [ninth in Wednesday’s Queen’s Vase at Ascot] could run.
“We probably won’t decide for definite until Tuesday. There will probably be a couple anyway with the other two. I would expect Ryan will ride Anthony Van Dyck,” O’Brien said on Sunday.
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