Dubai: Godolphin jockey William Buick believes the progressive Jack Hobbs can give him a first success in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh, Ireland, on Saturday.
The Norwegian-born rider, who won the Dubai World Cup (G1) earlier this year aboard Prince Bishop, partnered the Godolphin-owned son of Halling to finish runner-up to Golden Horn in the English equivalent at Epsom three weeks ago.
However, Buick is confident the John Gosden trainee will have come on for the effort and will run a big race in the landmark 150th running of the Irish Classic.
“The Curragh will definitely suit him. I think he’ll progress, that was only his fourth run,” said Buick, who was jointly recruited together with James Doyle by Godolphin in November last year.
“It all came thick and fast for him before the Derby, so he’s entitled to improve both physically and mentally.
“He’s a beautiful horse to ride, you can put him where you want in a race and he goes to sleep.
“He’s a galloping horse, but he has got a kick. Golden Horn just has another gear, and that showed at Epsom. He’s still progressing and learning.”
Jack Hobbs is likely to face eight rivals, including another Godolphin-owned hopeful in Pleascach and Shaikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum’s Storm The Stars, in the 2,400-metre contest.
In addition, he will take on a bunch of locally trained horses representing 11-time Irish Derby-winning handler Aidan O’Brien. Among them are Epsom Oaks (G1) sensation Qualify, Giovanni Canaletto, fourth at Epsom, and Kilimanjaro and Hans Holbein, who finished sixth and seventh respectively.
A shock 50/1 winner of the Oaks — the middle leg of the Fillies’ Triple Crown, preceded by the 1,000 Guineas and followed by the St Leger — Qualify earned her place in the Curragh Classic through a ‘win-and-you’re-in’ initiative aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the race.
Both Jack Hobbs and Pleascach will run in the famous Royal Blues silks of Team Godolphin, who won the Irish Derby in 1994 with the pioneering superstar Balanchine.
Gosden has won three Irish Classics — the 2,000 Guineas (Kingman, 2014), Oaks (Great Heavens, 2012) and St. Leger (Mashaallah, 1992) — but has yet to get his hands on the prestigious Derby trophy, which was first presented in 1866.
Should Jack Hobbs win Saturday’s big race, it would propel him into the reckoning for a 2015 Cartier Award in the Three-Year-Old Colt category, where English and Irish 2,000 Guineas (G1) winner Gleneagles heads the rankings with 128 points.
Epsom victor Golden Horn, Hobbs’s stable companion at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket, England, has 64 points and is followed by French Derby (G1) hero New Bay (48), Commonwealth Cup (G1) sensation Muhaarar (40) and French 2,000 Guineas (G1) champion Make Believe (36).
The award winners are decided by points earned in group races (40 per cent), plus the votes cast by British racing journalists (30 per cent) and readers of the Racing Post and Daily Telegraph newspapers (30%).
