Dermot Weld admits he would have preferred another week to prepare Harzand for Saturday’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

On the approach road from Clonmel to the picturesque village of Rosegreen, in the heart of horse and greyhound country, the first sign of equine enterprise comes from a distant view of the white running rails lining just one of the gallops in the world-famous thoroughbred base in Ballydoyle.