Roaring Lion declared for Epsom Derby
Roaring Lion has been declared for the Gr.1 Investec Derby at Epsom on Saturday, drawing stall 5 of 12.
Roaring Lion, the runaway winner of the Gr. 2 Dante Stakes at York in May, will represent Qatar Racing in the Investec Derby (4.30pm) at Epsom.
Trainer John Gosden has won the Derby twice, with Benny The Dip in 1997 and Golden Horn in 2015, both of whom were comfortable winners of the Dante on their previous starts. Benny The Dip was 11/1 for the Derby while Golden Horn was 13/8 favourite; Roaring Lion is somewhere in the middle, currently 8/1 second favourite behind Saxon Warrior.
Roaring Lion was perhaps unlucky not to beat Saxon Warrior in last autumn's Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, briefly in front before going down by a neck, and there was two and a quarter lengths between them in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in early-May, Saxon Warrior winning and Roaring Lion in fifth. Roaring Lion ended up racing on his own that day and, as his Dante performance showed, he's much better with cover.
Roaring Lion has also been more fortunate than Saxon Warrior with the draw, the favourite in stall 1. Roaring Lion will break from in between Saxon Warrior's stablemate Delano Roosevelt and Dee Ex Bee. Other key form contenders Hazapour, the mount of dual Derby winner Frankie Dettori, and Young Rascal are in stalls 3 and 9 respectively.
Roaring Lion's jockey Oisin Murphy has had three rides in the Derby, finishing fifth on both Red Galileo (as an 18-year-old in 2014) and Benbatl (2017).
Qatar Racing owned - and still do, he runs in the Diomed Stakes on Saturday - Arod who was stretched by the trip when fourth in the 2014 Derby.
The big question for Roaring Lion is whether he will stay a mile and a half - we won't know until he's tried it, though his sire Kitten's Joy was a Gr. 1 turf winner over the same trip in America, while his dam Vionnet produced her best peformance when narrowly beaten in a Gr. 1 over a mile and a quarter on grass. Soft ground would be an unknown for Roaring Lion, but Saturday is forecast to be dry and he's won twice on good to soft.
If Roaring Lion wins he'll become the first grey to win the Derby since Airborne in 1946!