STUD CAN PIERCE RIVALS

JACOBS' Crackers

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JOSEPH O'BRIEN can put one over his father this afternoon by landing the feature Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown with his hugely promising three-year-old TENNESSEE STUD (3.30).

O'Brien senior has three of the five entries in this Group Three event, with his Ballysax Stakes winner Delacroix the main player from Ballydoyle. However, the bare form of that win doesn't add up to much and I suspect he doesn't have anywhere near the improvement in him that the son of Wootton Bassett has.

A winner of two of his four starts as a juvenile, the selection saved his best run till last with a clear-cut success in the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud despite hating the heavy ground that day.