Zawraq: is a best-priced 5-1 to win the Investec Derby at Epsom

PICTURE: Caroline Norris

DERMOT WELD said he will not know until the race is run whether his Investec Derby hope Zawraq will stay the mile and a half of the Epsom Classic, with the trainer unwilling to find out until the big day.

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Plenty have questioned whether dual Guineas winner Gleneagles will stay the Derby trip and Weld, whose colt beat Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas runner-up Endless Drama by further in his only start this season over a mile at Leopardstown, has similiar concerns about Zawraq.

“I’m hopeful he will stay. If you look at his immediate pedigree, you would say he is a miler but if you look back further there is stamina there,” Weld said at Breakfast with the Stars.

“Only the Derby will tell us whether he is going to stay a mile and a half. I haven’t tried to find that out. I would rather find that out on the day.

“It would be lovely to have a horse good enough to win the Derby, time will tell with this fellow. Zawraq is a magnificent individual and has got a super temperament. He is a very good mover.”

Zawraq has just two starts to his name, beating Sir Isaac Newton on his sole start at two before his three-and-a-half-length success in the Listed Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial Stakes last month.

He is the shortest price horse of those widely quoted for the Epsom Classic who is currently entered, at a best-priced 5-1. Only the yet-to-be supplemented Golden Horn, at 7-4, and Gleneagles, who is only priced up with four firms at 4-1, are shorter in the betting.

 

Elm Park comes next in the betting, but his price was pushed out to 7-1 on Tuesday after the colt changed his legs several times when working on the Derby course.

But his trainer Andrew Balding moved to allay such concerns and said: “The main purpose today was to give Elm Park a feel of the track. He changed his legs but he would do that on a flat track – he does it when he changes gears. He looks very well.”

On his horse’s chances, Balding added: “The Derby looks wide open and apart from Gleneagles, if he should run, we have the best two-year-old form. We had a perfectly satisfactory prep run so I think we have every reason to be optimistic.

“He was just leg weary in the Dante – he tied up in the last 100 yards which was purely down to fitness and having his first race for such a long time. There were no hiding places in a race of that nature but it should have put him spot on for the Derby – 13 lengths back to the fourth says it all but we needed to have a run. You don’t mind getting beaten in the Dante if you are going to win the Derby.”

Workforce, in 2010, remains the only horse to win the Derby having been beaten in the Dante.

fonte : RacingPost