The Williamhill.com English Derby will reach the semi-final stage next Saturday when the third round is run at Wimbledon and hopes of an Irish victory in the classic are sky high following another very successful weekend for the raiding party.

THE Hegarty Bookmakers 600 dominates the home racing scene this week but there will also be huge interest in the progress of our numerically very strong team which will be on duty in the second round of the Williamhill.com English Derby at Wimbledon.

NEWS from across the water yesterday is that one of the biggest entries for many years will go into the draw on Sunday for the first round of the Williamhill.com English Derby and among them there will be one of the biggest ever Irish raiding teams.

IN what will be his first outing on Irish soil since November, College Causeway faces an extremely tough test at Shelbourne Park this evening in the opening round of the BCR Print Easter Cup.

Leading fancies Shelbourne Aston and College Causeway have been handed very difficult first round tasks in the BCR Print Easter Cup which gets under way at Shelbourne on Saturday night.