Henrythenavigator now looks likely to skip the Vodafone Derby at Epsom Downs racecourse due to concerns about the ground. This comes just as arch-rival Casual Conquest gained a Vodafone Derby nod from his trainer.
The build-up to the Vodafone Derby kicked-off at yesterday's Breakfast with the Stars.
Henrythenavigator is known to perform well on a fast surface. "He wants summer ground," Aidan O'Brien stressed.
O'Brien has said that Team Henrythenavigator will be deciding in the next two days whether the colt will be joining in the Epsom Downs racecourse extravaganza on June 7th. But he seems resigned to accept the possibility that the forecast is not leaning toward drying weather and that Henrythenavigator might miss the Vodafone Derby.
While Andrew Cooper, Epsom Derby racecourse's highly respected clerk of the course, declared the ground on the Derby course to be 'soft', he also pointed to the fact that one weather forecast had predicted a dry spell next week. "It tends to make me think there may not be a lot of rain around," he said.
Meanwhile, Casual Conquest's trainer Dermot Weld gave an endorsement for Casual Conquest, who will be supplemented at a cost of £75,000.
According to Weld, Casual Conquest had matured both mentally and physically since his Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial win. And many analysts say this adds up to a reasonably strong contender.
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