Horse Racing Tips: Mick Fitzgerald’s 5 to thrive on Epsom Derby day

Big calls for a huge day's racing on Saturday.

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change

No matter what anybody tells you there is only one ‘Derby’ and that is Saturday’s feature at Epsom. They race over 1m 4f and the winner has to have the unique combination of speed, stamina, balance and guts. Some Derbys are better quality than others but the winner always goes into the history books in Horse Racing’s Hall of Fame.

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14:00 War Horse

Godolphin can’t win everything, can they? They have the likely market leader Blue Trail who won a decent race at Kempton in March. My main worry with War Horse is whether he will handle the track or not, but I was taken with his performance at Sandown with cheekpieces on. If they continue to work for War Horse, he is the value play.

14:35 Technique

Freddie and Martyn Meade have a chance of scoring on the biggest day in Flat racing. This daughter of Master Craftsman was unlucky at Nottingham when getting chinned. No disgrace there as it was a decent contest and Technique should come forward from that run.

15:10 Modern News

He’s been so good in his last two victories in the Newbury Spring Cup and took the step up in grade well to win a Listed race at Windsor. Modern News can complete the hat-trick to have us all wondering how he ever got beaten in the Lincoln Handicap at the start of the season.

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15:45 Mokaatil

This is an unbelievably quick 5f race and is known as the Epsom Dash. When you stand at the start and look down at what awaits these horses it is not a surprise that some of them just cannot cope with what’s being asked of them. We have no worries with the selection, Mokaatil, who won this race last year. He is a little higher in the weights but conditional jockey Harry Davies takes 5lb off and won on him in April over course and distance.

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16:30 Stone Age

I was very taken with Nations Pride at Newmarket last time and he sprang to prominence as a Derby hope when winning the UAE Derby the time before that. He has been supplemented into this contest at a cost of £75,000 and Godolphin are on a roll having won with Adaayar last year and Massar previously.

The Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown has had its share of winners of the race and Stone Age was impressive when running away with that contest and he is the mount of Ryan Moore and ticks a lot of the boxes.

There is no superstar from the two-year-old ranks here so a lot of the runners have run in Trials instead. Desert Crown won the Dante at York in May and was impressive in a good time, but this is different again. This is the ultimate test of the racehorse and Stone Age with his experience gets the nod from me.

Epsom tips

14:00 War Horse
14:35 Technique
15:10 Modern News
15:45 Mokaatil
16:30 Stone Age

*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change

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