Updated: July 2, 2020 at 7:58 am

English King heads 16 entries for Saturday’s G1 241st Investec Derby | Megan Ridgewell

Bjorn Nielsen’s English King (Fr) (Camelot), winner of Lingfield’s Listed Derby Trial and ante-post favourite for Saturday’s £500,000 G1 241st Investec Derby, will depart from the dreaded stall one after heading a field of 16 declarations for Epsom’s Blue Riband. Qatar Racing’s G1 2000 Guineas hero Kameko (Kitten’s Joy) has been allocated gate 11, while Aidan O’Brien’s team of six includes G1 Futurity Trophy fourth Mogul (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and G3 Hampton Court S. victor Russian Emperor (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who are drawn two and six respectively. Ryan Moore will be on Mogul, with last year’s winning rider Seamie Heffernan coming across to partner Russian Emperor. Padraig Beggy gets the ride on the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas runner-up Vatican City (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Eight fillies will head postward for the £250,000 Investec Oaks with Anthony Oppenheimer’s G2 Ribblesdale S. winner Frankly Darling (GB) (Frankel {GB}) leading the home defence from gate three. The Ballydoyle contingent is again numerically strongest with a trio headed by G1 1000 Guineas heroine Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who has drawn stall five. Stablemates and Ribblesdale placegetters Ennistymon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Passion (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) are drawn in four and one respectively. Final declarations for Sunday’s equivalent Classics at Chantilly have also been announced with Godolphin’s G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Victor Ludorum (GB) (Shamardal) due out of stall one in the 17-runner €900,000 G1 Prix du Jockey Club while the Niarchos Family’s G1 Coronation S. heroine Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) gets the same post and heads a field of 11 for the €600,000 Prix de Diane Longines. Michael Tabor’s G1 Irish 1000 Guineas victress Peaceful (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) sidesteps Epsom to line up in stall four for the 10 1/2-furlong test. (by : TDN)

As president of the sale company that conducted the final auction before the coronavirus pandemic shut down society as well as the first one after restrictions were lifted, OBS’s Tom Ventura has had to learn on the fly. Wednesday, he joined the TDN Writers’ Room podcast presented by Keeneland  to offer his advice for the rest of the industry on keeping business going amidst COVID-19 and his impressions of the rebounding sale market.    Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Ventura said of the lessons gleaned through the pandemic, “One of the things that we learned real quickly, that you had to be pretty flexible and be able to adapt on the fly. There were restrictions coming down the pike, literally, as we were about to hold the March sale … As things were tightening up, it became very hectic, almost on an hourly basis as things were being changed.”    Things looked ominous for both the racing and sales worlds at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but tracks resuming operations and positive results from Fasig-Tipton Midlantic this week suggest a rebound is underway. Ventura agreed that the mindset has changed and pointed to the upcoming OBS July sale as another barometer for the industry.    ”The [July] sale, we’ll get a real true test of the depth of the market. We have another thousand horses on the market,” he said. “I’m hopeful, and I think based on our sale and the Fasig-Tipton sale, they held up pretty well comparatively, and they had a lot of participation. I think the other thing that’s going to benefit us now is that all the racetracks for the most part are up and running. There’s a positive frame of mind now, compared to March, as we were just in the beginning of this, as things were shutting down.”    Elsewhere on the show, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers recapped Fasig-Tipton Midlantic and expressed concern about the vague safety protocols announced for the GI Kentucky Derby. Later on, in light of the number of top horses who have dropped off the Derby trail, they each picked one supplemental horse for their 3-year-old fantasy stables.    Click here to watch the podcast on Vimeo.  Click here for the audio-only version.