Marengo battles to Trial success

Odds-on favourite Battle Of Marengo gave Aidan O’Brien his seventh Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial win in ten years when beating three rivals readily at Leopardstown yesterday.

Sent off at 2/13, Joseph O’Brien’s mount edged ahead before halfway and, chased by Loch Garman and Little White Cloud up the straight, kept going well to triumph by a length and three-quarters in what is best described as a workmanlike, if not particularly impressive, display.

There was no major shake-up in the Investec Derby betting in the wake of Battle Of Maerego’s Group 2 success, with both Paddy Power (5/1) and Ladbrokes (4/1) leaving him unchanged while Boylesports and Stan James cut him to 4/1 (from 5).