Dylan Browne McMonagle goes into Epsom this week with a chance of a Classic double, and Joseph O'Brien's top rider is not hiding how much is riding on it. He is due to partner Thundering On in the Betfred Oaks on Friday and James J Braddock in the Betfred Derby on Saturday, giving O'Brien's team live hopes in both races on the same weekend.
“I'm definitely excited, it's a big, big weekend ahead for the team,” McMonagle said on Thursday. “Going to Epsom with two live chances you'd like to think, in both big races, so we're all looking forward to it and hopefully it goes smoothly.” That is the kind of hand every yard wants at Epsom: one filly for the Oaks and one colt for the Derby, with the chance to turn a good week into something far bigger.
Thundering On is the more delicate of the two prospects, but also the one whose recent rise has changed her picture most sharply. She was beaten in her first three starts, then improved when stepped up to 10 furlongs and won a Group 3 at Navan later in April. McMonagle said she had “matured a lot and strengthened up over the winter,” adding that she had taken “a huge step forward from two to three” and had “done really not much wrong this year.”
There is still a question hanging over the Oaks, and it is the sort that only Epsom itself can answer. McMonagle said she relaxes and “gives herself every chance” of staying 12 furlongs, but he also admitted that nobody knows for certain until the race is run. She was beaten on her seasonal debut at Leopardstown on April 12, so her chance rests on whether that marked improvement holds when the trip is stretched again and the track asks for more.
James J Braddock brings a different profile into Saturday's Derby. He won the Group 3 Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes by a short head last Saturday, and McMonagle expects more to come over a mile and a half. “He's improving a lot,” he said, pointing to the way the colt finished at Leopardstown after two or three lengths had to be made up late on. He also said slower conditions would not do him any harm, with rain in the area and the colt still something of an unknown because of how much he has progressed.
For O'Brien, the significance is simple: he arrives at Epsom with a rider he trusts and two horses that have earned their place in the biggest races of the week. For McMonagle, Friday and Saturday now decide whether those hopes stay as live chances or become the kind of near misses Epsom has always been built to produce.
