Blanco hoping to be all white on the night
The Galileo colt took his unbeaten record to four with an impressive success in the recognised Derby trial on the Knavesmire, but connections decided to bypass Epsom in favour of this French equivalent.
He seems well placed in stall seven while his Ballydoyle handler has an interesting second string to his bow in Viscount Nelson (stall six), a fine third in last month’s Irish 2000 Guineas.
Colm O’Donoghue, who rides Viscount Nelson, said: “He ran a great race for Pat Smullen in the Irish 2000 Guineas.
“Obviously it’s a big field there and you’ll need an awful lot of luck in running. Hopefully he’ll run a big race on Sunday.”
The Brian Meehan-trained Dancing David bids to bounce back to winning ways having been narrowly denied by Epsom aspirant Azmeel in the Dee Stakes at Chester, but a wide draw in stall 21 seems far from ideal.
Godolphin’s Simon De Montfort completes the British challenge and is in stall one for Mahmood Al Zarooni.
French 2000 Guineas winner Lope De Vega (stall 20) heads the home team, while Frankie Dettori takes the ride on Pain Perdu (stall 18) as Ahmed Ajtebi rides the Godolphin runner. Other interesting contenders include Pascal Bary’s Ice Blue (stall three), the mount of Ryan Moore, and the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Behkabad (stall 13).
Rouget is looking for back-to-back wins in the race following the success of Le Havre 12 months ago and Georges Rimauld, racing manager to Behkabad’s owner the Aga Khan, is confident of a bold show.
“He was very good when he won at Chantilly last month and he has been aimed at this race for quite some time now,” said Rimauld.
“He is stepping up in trip and we will have to see how that works out on the day.
“I’m not sure if it will help but I don’t think it will be a problem.
“It all depends how the race pans out and whether he’s up near the front or whether we wait a little longer.
“There are quite a few horses in the race so we’ll just have to figure out what to do, but he should have a good chance.
“We are in stall 13 and I am happy with that. If we had been out wide in stall 23 that would have been a bit tricky, but he should be fine.”
The notable absentee from the race is John Dunlop’s Elusive Pimpernel who has suffered a minor setback. The trainer hopes to have the horse back in time for Royal Ascot.
