The colt, owned by the Queen, had been placed as the clear favourite for the race after an impressive win at the Dante Stakes last month, but his odds lengthened considerably to 13-8 with some bookmakers when news of the injury filtered through.
The Queen’s racing manager John Warren played down the incident, claiming that the injury wouldn’t affect his ability to run in the classic.
The Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt galloped six furlongs on Sunday with a stable companion and reportedly pleased connections with the way he went. The trouble began when Stoute checked the son of Street Cry at evening stables on Monday and the legendary trainer noticed a small amount of swelling on the horse’s near-fore joint. After having the horse X-rayed it was found that the Dante Stakes winner had a little filling in the joint the first sign of a potential injury and Stoute decided to immediately ease off the work for his charge and only allowed him to be trotted yesterday.
News of the slight setback soon filtered out to the Epsom Derby betting markets and resulted in Carlton House drifting from being a solid 6/4 market leader to as big as 2/1 in places. It is likely that the swelling was caused by nothing more than a slight strain, so if the it subsides as is anticipated there is no obvious reason why the big race favourite shouldn’t take his chance on Saturday afternoon and attempt to give The Queen a first winner of the world’s greatest horse race after 60 years of trying as an owner/breeder.
Concerns over the wellbeing of the favourite naturally resulted in most of his closest market rivals being trimmed in price. French challenger Pour Moi was the most notable mover in the market and is now as short as 7/2 second favourite following days of sustained support. Aidan O’Brien’s Recital is offered at 5/1, his stable companion Seville is 6/1, Native Khan is 9/1, and they go 14/1 bar.
Tags: Carlton house horse, Investec Derby at EpsomShare
