Derby Festival News |
 |
| Friday 6th & Saturday 7th June 2014 | |
Romsdal Strengthens Gosden's Epsom Hand
02/06/14
John Gosden's Romsdal has been supplemented into Saturday's Investec Derby for which there are 17 acceptors after the latest declaration stage.
 |
The tree-year-old was beaten by a nose by Orchestra in the MBNA Chester Vase at Chester on May 8, and the decision to pay the £75,000 supplementary Derby entry fee was made despite a workmanlike racecourse gallop at Newmarket last week.
Gosden insisted the work was par for the course with Romsdal:
"It was his normal sort of work, he's a bit idle and we're happy enough with him. He's not the type of horse who flashes in the morning so we'll see.
"We'll watch him over the weekend and see if we're going to supplement or not.
"William [Buick] was happy enough with him, he can be lazy in his work and was just playing around, tending to lean towards the other horse, but that doesn't bother me.
"He ran great at Chester and belongs in the race if we think he's in top order.
"I wanted to get a nice piece of work into him, he was due to work Tuesday but we had nearly two inches of rain and they shut all the main gallops. I haven't done much with him since Chester."
Stablemate Western Hymn, who defeated Snow Sky in April and subsequently won Sandown's Classic Trial, is very much on course for Epsom after he enjoyed a nice workout under William Buick at the track during Thursday's Breakfast With The Stars event.
Gosden added: "Western Hymn enjoyed coming here today. He handled the hill, switched his legs very well and his head carriage is better."
Epsom's clerk of the course Andrew Cooper is not ruling out the prospect of watering the famous turf ahead of this week's Investec Derby meeting - should the forecast rain fail to materialise.
Following a dry weekend on the Downs the going is on the soft side of good, but that could ease in the coming days, with significant rainfall a possibility for Wednesday.
However, with the forecast uncertain, Cooper believes it would be unwise to completely dismiss the chances of turning on the taps ahead of Investec Oaks day on Friday.
