Fran Berry was a special guest on this week’s Sporting Life Racing Podcast and he argued the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby should move in the calendar.
Los Angeles won a 16th Irish Derby at the Curragh for trainer Aidan O’Brien at the weekend but after another small field was assembled, in which Coolmore ran four horses to satisfy the demands of an eight-runner race for the World Pool, the contest has come under fire in certain quarters.
Ger Lyons is one of the trainers calling for changes saying ‘it’s all about trip’ in the Racing Post, but Berry thinks the Classic is positioned too closely to Royal Ascot.
He said on the podcast: “I think it should be left at a mile and a half but times have changed – Royal Ascot is a huge meeting now for modern owners and they want runners at that meeting.
“Whether it’s the Queen’s Vase or the King George V Handicap, the Hampton Court or the King Edward VII Stakes, they’re huge races now. They are Group 2s, Group 3s, handicaps, but you get a new owner with money, they want to go to Royal Ascot.
“As a consequence, the Irish Derby is in the wrong place and I think we should look at moving it to Irish Oaks weekend (this year it’s the weekend of Saturday July 20).
“If you fast forward a year to 2025 I think we could have the Irish Oaks on the Saturday and the Irish Derby on the Sunday (in mid-to-late July).
“The one race it could have a little knock-on effect on is the King George at Ascot the week after, but in the last few years King Of Steel is the only three-year-old that has figured really and it has perhaps become a race for older horses.
“If you moved the Irish Derby to that slot it gives you five weeks to the Juddmonte International at York, two or three weeks beyond that to the Irish Champion Stakes. And if you finished in the first three in those aforementioned races at Royal Ascot you could get win-and-you’re in status for the Irish Derby four weeks on from Ascot.
“Then you’ve got a mid-season spectacular with the two Classics on one weekend. But it’s got to stay at a mile and a half.
“If the Irish Derby was 10 furlongs on Sunday, City Of Troy would still be going to the Eclipse as that race puts more value on him as a stallion; he’s taking on his elders, the travelling, it all adds up as a more valuable package.
“Cutting it to 10 furlongs would be a complete waste of time.”
Fran also discusses several horses that ran at the Curragh on the podcast, as well as City Of Troy’s Coral-Eclipse assignment, and he has an antepost tip for the Irish Oaks as well, so make sure you listen to this week’s episode of the Sporting Life Racing Podcast right here.
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