Juddmonte’s General Manager Barry Mahon says he’s looking forward to seeing Nightwalker step up to a mile and a half in the Betfred Derby.
Trained by Sir Michael Stoute during his juvenile campaign, when the sizeable grey won one of his three starts, Nightwalker is this year trained by John and Thady Gosden and has finished third in the Feilden Stakes and fifth in the Dante Stakes.
Mahon feels the son of Frankel was not seen to best effect in the 10-furlong Group 2 at York earlier this month and expects the longer distance at Epsom to play to the colt’s strengths.
Juddmonte also have the Dermot Weld-trained Purview entered in the mile and a half Classic on June 7 but, speaking on Racing TV’s Luck on Sunday programme, the owners’ spokesperson said: “Nightwalker is our main Derby hope at the minute.
“John and Thady are both very happy with him, things didn’t quite go to plan in the Dante. In fairness, we’d hoped to be handy in the race as we know he stays well. Just as the gates opened, he stumbled and from an outside draw that cost him his position. In fairness to Rab (Havlin, jockey), he had to get him balanced and get him relaxed and he ended up a lot further back than he wanted to be.
“He looked after him and he came home well. I think a mile and a half is going to suit him well and I’d be very much looking forward to him at Epsom.”
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