Willie Carson backing Camelot

Published on 01/06/2012 00:00

FOUR-TIMES Investec Derby winner Willie Carson can see no further than odds-on favourite Camelot taking the spoils at Epsom tomorrow, with Aidan O’Brien’s thoroughbred facing only eight rivals – the smallest field since 1907.

Carson’s Derby victories stretched across three decades, starting with Troy in 1979, Henbit and Nashwan at either end of the 1980s and Erhaab in 1994. The Scot, who retired in 1996, is Epsom’s Guest of Honour over the weekend, as well as providing analysis on the BBC.

“It looks as though it’s a penalty-kick at the moment,” Carson said. “He’s won the 2,000 Guineas and, if you looked at him after the winning post in the Guineas, he was still going into the sunset. He was going further away, so the extra distance is going to help him.”

O’Brien’s star three-year-old Camelot flew home from the rear to claim the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket earlier this month and he is a warm order to complete the same Classic double achieved by Sea The Stars in 2009. The Ballydoyle trainer saddles just one other runner in Astrology, a runaway winner of the Dee Stakes at Chester.

The highest-rated British contender is the Andrew Balding-trained Bonfire. Balding also runs outsider Minimise Risk.

David Lanigan’s Main Sequence secured his fourth victory from as many starts in the Lingfield Derby Trial. The third home at Lingfield, Marcus Tregoning’s Cavaleiro, reopposes this weekend, with Hayley Turner taking the ride for the first time. Yorkshire trainer Richard Fahey saddles his first ever runner in the famous race in Chester Vase winner Mickdaam, the mount of champion jockey Paul Hanagan. John Gosden has an interesting contender in Thought Worthy, while Rugged Cross from the Henry Candy stable completes the final field.