Both the Svenskt Derby on July 12 and the Danish Derby on August 1 are in play for Kiri and Tom Glæsner Larsen’s three-year-old Doc Holliday after Sunday’s spectacular romp in the Derby Trial at Jägersro. The Danish-bred son of Appel Au Maitre was never out of a canter, led throughout and won eased down by five lengths from the improving Icefall.
There is no doubt the winning margin could have been far greater, but Carlos Lopez looked after his horse and never asked him a single question.
A 2,400-metre workout worth SEK 125,000 – and definitively a ticket straight into the Svenskt Derby, the race the same connections’ Queen Azteca (Sharp Azteca) was hot favourite to win last year.
When the Voterlöpning later in the day failed to produce an obvious Swedish Derby favourite, the day only got better hour by hour for Kiri and Tom Glæsner Larsen, who have a major talent in Doc Holliday.
The bay colt is trained by Niels Petersen at Øvrevoll and was bred at Stutteri Hjortebo.
He is out of the Pour Moi mare Silver Seas, making him a full brother to the former Derby Consolation winner Dunkerque, now thriving over jumps in Britain, where he recently took his fourth win in a row.
It was the first win of Doc Holliday’s career at the fourth attempt – though he did begin with two starts at Meydan, before finishing strongly over 1,600 metres behind stablemate Bruce Almighty (Appel Au Maitre) on May 17.
With five weeks until the Svenskt Derby, the team behind Doc Holliday has plenty of time to plan the route ahead.
Niels Petersen stated on Friday’s ‘GalopProgrammet’ on GalopSport that the Bucherer Danish Derby is this year’s big target for Doc Holliday, and the question now, of course, is whether the road there goes via Jägersro again on July 12 – or whether Doc Holliday might instead be sent to Klampenborg’s Derby Trial Stakes to test the track and the grandstand turn.
Second place in the Svenskt Derby Trial went to the Lennart J:r Reuterskiöld-trained Icefall (Juniper Tree), also Danish-bred, by Joca Stable at York Stutteri.
Icefall was making just his third career start and has improved his placing every time. As a son of the super mare Icecapada (Mastercraftsman), it has always been on the cards that Icefall would only truly blossom at three – and he definitely looks on the right path now.
And while we are on the subject of Danish-breds, Vanja Sandrup’s three-year-old Skywalk (Appel Au Maitre) shed his maiden tag over 1,600 metres in the final race on the card.
With Jacob Johansen in the saddle, Skywalk won by the narrowest possible margin from Estoublon (Wootton Bassett), Wolis Hamoriko (Girolamo) and Tiberius Tide (Sea The Moon).
Skywalk is owned by Stall Power and was bred on Zealand by Stestrup Møllegaard.
