Derby punters heads on Bolshoi Ballet, hearts with John Leeper
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05/06/2021 - 11:30 Irish trainer Aidan O Brien can become the record holder for British classic winners with 41 if Bolshoi Ballet give him his ninth Epsom Derby victory Glyn KIRK AFP 4 min
London (AFP)
Bolshoi Ballet is the punters choice to give trainer Aidan O Brien a ninth Epsom Derby and a 41st British classic breaking a record that has stood for almost 150 years later on Saturday.
However, it is John Leeper, a horse named after the late two-time Derby winning trainer John Leeper Dunlop and trained by his son Ed who may well attract the more romantically-inclined punters.
Fri 4 Jun 2021
Bolshoi Ballet has already followed a path trodden by two of Aidan O’Brien’s greats as he seeks to further emulate Galileo and High Chaparral by providing his trainer with a ninth victory in the Cazoo Derby.
It is 20 years since O’Brien secured his first victory in the premier Classic with the mighty Galileo, before following up 12 months later High Chaparral.
With long-time ante-post favourite High Definition and several other colts not declared, O’Brien saddles just one runner in the Derby for the first time since 2004 – perhaps indicative of the confidence behind him.
Like Galileo and High Chaparral, Bolshoi Ballet has warmed up for his Epsom date on Saturday by winning the two key Irish trials at Leopardstown – the Ballysax Stakes and the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial.
Only in Derby week, only on Watership Down, only from Kingsclere in Hampshire could there be a challenge like that facing a slim three-year-old colt called Youth Spirit as he winged towards us in the
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