The Derby trials have been so poor at Chester this week it might be interesting to see how SET POINT gets on in the last at Chester today (holds a Derby entry and is currently 50/1) I think he will run well today.
Ontario was awful for O'Brien. The jockey said the colt stopped quickly and the vet reported that the horse was slightly lame after the race. You can only imagine he is a bit better than than that but it didn't look like he was enjoying himself at any stage of today's race. Yibr was disappointing, I didn't fancy him today and he surely misses the Derby after that feeble effort. Colts rated 98 and 92 on official ratings have filled the first two places today and it looks a bit lousy as a renewal. I wasn't really seeing it with Foxes Tales today but he was well supported, he just never got into a rhythm today and the jockey reported that the colt was "Never travelling", again, hard to see any point in running him in the Derby. Maximal was second to Hurricane Lane last time and it may be that the latter colt is Charlie Appleby's best shot at the Derby. I felt the Vase would have suited Hurricane Lane but he was pencilled in for the Dante and we may all be praying that something comes to the fore in the York trial because the form so far has looked well below average Classic material and we thought last year was bad.