Henrythenavigator (near side) defeats New Approach in the 2,000 Guineas
SEAMIE HEFFERNAN, second jockey to the powerful Aidan O'Brien team at Ballydoyle, is quite hopeful that Henrythenavigator could stay the 1m4f trip in the Vodafone Derby at Epsom on June 7.
The son of Kingmambo edged New Approach in the Stanjamesuk.com 2,000 Guineas, prompting O'Brien to say afterwards that he could be a Derby horse.
It surprised many, but Heffernan was not one of them. Quoted on setantasports.com, Heffernan said: 𨧻f he gets the trip, he probably has more speed than any of them.
孏here are no real rules in racing. He's a lot of speed and the key to him is fast ground, but he switches off and there's no problem settling him really.
孏here would be a better chance of him being a Derby horse than a six-furlong sprinter at this stage.?
Heffernan rode Washington Irving to finish a modest second to Casual Conquest in Sunday's Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown.
He added: 孏hey went slow, it wasa bit of a false-run race. Their pacemaker lay on top of me around the bend and my lad got all unbalanced. It was a tactical race but the horse that won it is a fair horse and he was impressive.
㜁e were hoping Washington Irving would win. It's only a trial really at the end of the day. We're hoping we can improve him between now and the Derby.
𨧻t was only his third run and he has disappointed three times - that's the way it is. You would be saying he'd be more of a Leger type. He's a late maturer and he's probably not woken up to what's going on yet.
𨧻t's hard to look at anything we have as outstanding at the moment,?Heffernan added.
孏hey need to improve stepping up to a mile-and-a-half, but they might.
They're still babies and we haven't done that much with them at home
