EPSOM DERBY

I think Bolshoi Ballet could trip up and still win this.

I am really struggling to see how he will get beaten. You have to give due respect Mac Swiney as a dual Group 1 winner, especially now the rain has come, but I don’t see any dangers elsewhere. Sure, they are all entitled to improve but Bolshoi Ballet’s Derrinstown win marks him down as a horse with an outstanding chance.

He has the form, the pedigree and the draw, and I can’t see any holes in him.

The rest have it all to prove. For example, I rode in Hurricane Lane’s Newbury win and he struck me as a big, heavy horse who wouldn’t be ideally suited to Epsom, and his Dante win didn’t change my mind on that score.

This is Bolshoi Ballet’s to lose – and I don’t see how he loses.

Doncaster

2.30pm

Rodrigo Diaz

He was obviously hugely progressive last season, admittedly from a low starting base handicap-wise, and I was delighted with his second on his comeback run when he was second to another improver, with the third well-beaten off. I would expect him to come on a good deal for the run and, off the same mark here, I expect him to go very well. I’ll be disappointed if he isn’t going very close here as he is a horse I like.

3.40pm

Man Of The Night

He has run a couple of fair races this season and has dropped to a mark of 90, so I can see the case for him here in first-time blinkers. Trip and ground look fine, and he is fairly handicapped at his best.

4.50pm

Air To Air

I rode him when he was just touched off at Newcastle earlier in the season and he put a below-par run behind him when winning at Newmarket last time. These are very different conditions – it was 7f and soft at Newmarket – but he didn’t get put up for that win in a novice and I think he is very fairly weighted off a mark of 81, which allows him to get into this 0-80. He should go well here.