Irish Derby Odds: Ambiente Friendly bids for Curragh compensation

The Irish Derby takes pride of place on Sunday with a field of eight runners set to contest the Curragh race with €725,000 on offer to the winner.

UK hopes are high, with James Fanshawe's Epsom runner-up Ambiente Friendly the one to beat on the formbook.

Aidan O'Brien has won the Irish Derby an incredible 15 times and the Ballydoyle handler accounts for half of the eight runners.

Irish Derby Odds

(Odds will display when market is available)

Ambiente Friendly

The Gleneagles colt was much-improved when stepped up to this sort of trip in Lingfield's Derby Trial in May, easily beating subsequent Royal Ascot winner Illinois and Goodwood Listed scorer Meydaan into second and third.

Another highly commendable showing as he put daylight between himself and the chasing back when second to City Of Troy in the Epsom Derby four weeks ago, he is the standard-bearer now for James Fanshawe and Robert Havlin in quest to go one better.

Los Angeles

The first of a quartet representing Aidan O'Brien in this year's renewal as he goes for a record-extending 16th success. Beat re-opposing stablemate Euphoric in Leopardstown Derby Trial (1m2f) in May and then took bronze at Epsom. Gets the nod from Ryan Moore now and they have 3 1⁄4-lengths to make up on Ambiente Friendly.

Matsuri

Second of three UK-based contenders. Roger Varian's son of Sea The Stars narrowly won a Kempton Polytrack novice over a mile in November on second start and built on that in reappearance Leicester novice win (1m2f, good to soft) last month, streaking clear in a first-time hood. Deeper waters now but looks a Group-horse in the making.

Grosvenor Square

Galileo colt was a Group 3 winner at Leopardstown (1m1f, heavy) on third juvenile run and was third in Chester Vase upped in trip on comeback in early May. Needs a fair step forward from that, with the beaten horses around him failing to do much for the form since.

Sunway

No better than seventh in the French Derby at Chantilly this month having previously sampled defeat in Group 3s at Longchamp and Saint-Cloud this spring. David Menuisier and Oisin Murphy will be pinning their hopes on improvement for the step up in trip / faster ground now.

Euphoric

Frankel colt was within a length of stablemate Los Angeles as they finished first and second in the Leopardstown Derby Trial last month and perhaps no surprise he faded at Epsom after setting fast fractions up front. A better showing this time could be in the offing.

The Euphrates

Completes the Ballydoyle quartet and is another of Frankel's offspring. He has only a Gowran Park maiden (1m½f, heavy) to show from five starts. Fourth, beaten over eight-lengths as Ambiente Friendly won Lingfield's Derby Trial last month and similar pattern at Royal Ascot when fifth in the Group 2 King Edwards VII Stakes nine days ago, though he outran his odds in a first-time visor, which is retained here.

Keeper's Heart

Dundalk maiden winner over a mile in October on second start. The Ger Lyons-trained son of Saxon Warrior was behind Los Angeles and Euphoric in his comeback at Leopardstown over 1m2f and ran to a similar level upped to this trip back at the Foxrock venue this month in Listed company. Has a big chunk of improvement to find in this company.

This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.