Twelve left in final Derby field
Having gone from possible runner to market leader inside a week, Jan Vermeer heads a field of 12 for the Investec Derby at Epsom on Saturday.
He will be ridden by Johnny Murtagh who had, it appears, been swayed towards the colt’s chances even before the news of the muscle injury that ruled out stable companion St Nicholas Abbey earlier this week. He along with two other Aidan O’Brien-trained runners – Cape Blanco (who is now expected to run in the Prix Du Jockey Club at Chantilly on Sunday) and Bright Horizon – were the only runners withdrawn at the final declaration stage.
The other two O’Brien runners, Midas Touch and likely pacemaker At First Sight, will be ridden by Colm O'Donoghue and Seamus Heffernan respectively.
The news agenda has been largely filled by the machinations at Ballydoyle to the point that the arrival of Workforce as the second-favourite has gone almost unnoticed; which is probably just how his trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, likes it as he attempts to win the Derby for the fifth time.
Stoute (pictured) is a man who has achieved a lot but prefers to say very little. Perhaps that is why the markets reacted in the way that they did when Workforce was taken to Lingfield Park for a gallop last week. The work itself was nothing greatly significant although, in typical Stoute style, Workforce was joined by recent Goodwood maiden winner Total Command and a third unidentified stable companion.
The gallop was more for educative purposes and Workforce came a couple lengths clear of the unnamed horse, whose identity may only become apparent in a winner’s enclosure at some point in the future. However, the point of the work seemed to have been achieved as Stoute declared that he would “be keen to take him to Epsom.”
Keenness, it would appear, is not state of being that easily grips Workforce, to the point that the staff at Stoute’s Freemason Lodge yard have christened him “Sefton”, after the famous Household Cavalry horse.
The Derby can often be the biggest battle of a colt’s career and Workforce has had a chequered start to his active service for Stoute. He had just the one start as a two-year-old, at Goodwood last October, where he lost some six lengths after stumbling out the gates but then winning by just as far.
The stumbling block for Workforce when he ran in the Dante Stakes, at York last month, was a mixture of fast ground and his own inexperience. He displayed an awkward head carriage early in the home straight and was then hanging left and probably did well to get as close as he did to the winner, Cape Blanco, especially as it transpired that he had pulled the bit through his mouth.
Workforce has been fitted with an Australian noseband since and Stoute said: “Hopefully that was just a one-off but we just put that on as a precaution; he’s had it on ever since. We took him to Lingfield and he doesn’t worry about very much – he’s a pretty laid-back fella.”
Stoute himself appears very laid-back but, like the swan gliding across the water, that is illusory and he will have been working overtime to complete a project that has been held up by external forces that even he has not been able to control through Workforce’s development this year. “He’s a bit short of experience and he’s just workmanlike at home,” Stoute explained. “And that was the case last year before he ran. We thought he’d run well and put up a very good display. I’m sorry I couldn’t give him two races before the Derby, because that was the initial plan, but he just didn’t come to himself with the spring that we had.”
Workforce may well be a work in progress but he is also not lacking in the raw materials that every trainer looks for. “He’s a big, progressive sort of horse – he’s 16-2 – and he’s a little short of experience,” Stoute said, looking at the downside. “But he’s got plenty of talent and we like the way he’s gone forward since the Dante.”
How far forward is the big question, but one that Stoute is reluctant to answer publically although he can see a positive from that York run. “He doesn’t tell us all that much at home. But I know he’s very well in himself and that experience, while it wasn’t ideal, will have pulled him together quite a bit.”
As he pulls the strands of form together, Stoute sees the O’Brien yard as the main danger. “I was very impressed with Jan Vermeer. I think you’ve got to be scared of anything that Ballydoyle produces because they seem to be coming right at the right time.”
It could also be the right time for Stoute’s colt to put the Lingfield work experience to good use.
Sir Michael Stoute’s Derby record: 1978 Hill’s Yankee (19th); 1979 Hardgreen (6th); 1980 Running Mill (21st); 1981 SHERGAR (won); 1983 Shearwalk (3rd); 1984 My Volga Boatman (14th); 1985 Shadeed (13th); 1986 SHAHRASTANI (won); 1986 Jareer (12th); 1987 Ajdal (9th), Ascot Knight (11th); 1988 Doyoun (3rd); 1989 Warrshan (11th); 1991 Mujaazif (13th); 1992 Alnasr Alwasheek (7th); 1993 Shareek (15th); 1994 Golden Ball (7th), Just Happy (8th), Jabaroot (16th), Foyer (unseated rider); 19960 Double Leaf (10th); 1997 Entrepreneur (4th); 1998 Greek Dance (5th); 1999 Beat All (3rd); 2001 Golan (2nd); 2001 Dilshaan (7th); 2003 KRIS KIN (won); 2004 NORTH LIGHT (won); 2006 Best Alibi (6th), Papal Bull (10th); 2008 Tartan Bearer (2nd), Doctor Fremantle (4th), Tajaaweed (8th).
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