by Myra Lewyn

Dual English classic winner Sea The Stars will not contest the $2,091,750 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (Ire-G1) after course conditions at the Curragh came up soft on Friday evening.

“There is no point in delaying the decision any longer,” trainer John Oxx told Racing Post on Saturday morning. "The ground went soft last night and there is no way we will have the good, fast ground he likes on Sunday."

Oxx said that Sea the Stars will instead be entered in the the Coral-Eclipse Stakes (Eng-G1), scheduled for July 4 at Sandown Park.

"We would have liked to run him at the Curragh had the ground been good or faster," Oxx said. "We would have liked to put the argument about him not getting a strongly run mile and a half to bed. But we are going a different path now."

Sea The Stars won the Stanjames.com Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) on May 2 and followed with a dazzling victory in the Investec Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) on June 6, becoming the first horse to win the opening two legs of the English Triple Crown since Nashwan in 1989.

With the withdrawal, Sea the Stars's jockey Mick Kinane will switch to Mourayan, a stakes winner who is also trained by Oxx and owns second- and third-place finishes in group stakes at Leopardstown this season.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien will bid to win the Irish Derby for a fourth consecutive year, following victories with Frozen Fire in 2008, Soldier of Fortune (Ire) in ’07, and Dylan Thomas (Ire) in ’06. He holds a strong hand with seven entries this year, including three of the six he started in the Epsom Derby—runner-up Fame And Glory, third-place finisher Masterofthehorse, and fifth-place finisher Golden Sword.
 
O’Brien also will be represented by maiden winners Byzantine and Hail Caesar, Group 1-placed winner Drumbeat, two-time winner Rockhampton.

O’Brien’s son Joseph will guide Byzantine, who finished last in the Mogeely Stud Silver Stakes at the Curragh on June 6.
 
Johnny Murtagh will be reunited with Fame And Glory, replacing Seamus Heffernan who piloted him at Epsom Downs. Heffernan will ride Masterofthehorse.

“I rode my horse last week and he felt like he had improved from Epsom,” said Murtagh, who guided the Montjeu (Ire) colt to victory in the P. W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes (Ire-G3) in April. “He’s a solid typical, Ballydoyle improver.”

Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor