The going at Epsom improved to good, good to soft in places on Saturday morning but a significant amount of rain could yet impact conditions ahead of the Betfred Derby.
The official description at the end of Friday’s Oaks card was good to soft and it was updated to good, good to soft in places on both the five-furlong and Derby courses at 7am this morning.
However, a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been issued from 9am to 6pm and today’s feature event could be run on soft ground for the first time in recent memory.
Such conditions would be a concern for backers of 2,000 Guineas winner Ruling Court, whose trainer Charlie Appleby said “any rain would be a negative” yesterday. He drifted to 5-1 then and is now a 15-2 chance with several bookmakers, with the favourite Delacroix shortening further this morning into 9-4 from 3-1.
Delacroix: Derby favourite has been strong in the market on Saturday morningCredit: Caroline Norris
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper said: “Undoubtedly we dried throughout racing yesterday and we lost 3mm through evapotranspiration, which isn’t insignificant. We’ve also dropped the rails to the fresh, inside mile. Walking it this morning, I wouldn’t call it any slower than good, good to soft in places, with a lot of good.
“We had 2.2mm of rain in the early hours and the forecast shows that by 10 or 11am we’re going to be at risk of showers, some of which could be heavy and that’s where we’ve sat for 72 hours. There will be places that won’t see anything and there will be places that see a hell of a lot of rain.
“Showers of up to 10mm are the sort of things that the Met Office team I spoke to last night say can happen.”
Delacroix has won on good to firm going but also landed the Group 3 Autumn Stakes – in which he beat fellow Derby runners Stanhope Gardens and Nightwalker – on good to soft ground. He was also narrowly denied by Hotazhell in the Group 1 Futurity Trophy on soft.
His stablemate Lambourn is also proven with give in the going having won a Listed race at Craon last season on very soft ground. The pair’s trainer Aidan O’Brien will go into the day’s Classic with inflated confidence after winning both the Coronation Cup and Oaks at the track yesterday.
Epsom non-runners
1.35 Cairo (going)
2.10 Cape Sovereign (going), Cressida Wildes (going)
4.15 Galactic Charm (going), Sam Hawkens (abscess)
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