Dettori expecting massive run from Aga Khan's latest Derby hope

Frankie Dettori loves a Derby story – and he could write one for the ages with a victory on classy colt Hazapour, writes James Toney.

Dettori took a spin on the Dermot Weld trainer horse this week and couldn’t get the smile off his face.

Weld’s stable jockey Pat Smullen, who is currently focusing all his trademark fighting instincts on a battle with pancreatic cancer, watched from the gallops too and loved what he saw.

Dettori has won the world’s greatest classic twice before, on Authorized in 2007 and Golden Horn three years ago. Weld has triumphed once, Smullen piloting Harzand to victory two years ago.

And both men believe their 2018 hope, the current third favourite, can defy the odds and deliver another win for the famous racing colours of the Aga Khan.

“His form is very good. The Aga Khan is steeped in Derby history and it’s a privilege for me to wear his colours,” Dettori said. “I’m looking forward to it and I’m hoping for a massive run.

“Dermot is a master trainer who has done it before and he’s not going to come to Epsom for the day out. He’s going to give a good account of himself and we’re expecting a massive run.

“He’s won the best known trial in Ireland and his form is good. We had a pretty much a routine gallop but I didn’t come to press any buttons.

“I just came to have a feel of the horse and get to know his character and I was very, very pleased with what I saw, he was a very willing partner.

“The Aga Khan is steeped in Derby history and it’s just a privilege for me to wear his colours.”

Weld is not the type for hyperbole but he has always exuded a quiet confidence about his hope, especially following the nature of his victory in the Derrinstown Stud Trial, a route last taken by a Derby winner in 2002 when Aidan O’Brien’s High Chaparral triumphed.

“We’re happy with our colt, Frankie was very pleased but it was just a routine gallop, we didn’t do anything magical or spectacular with him,” said Weld.

“He’s a pretty lazy type at home, he’s asleep most of the time I check on him. But he does his work well and we’re going in with every chance and in great form.”

Aga Khan II, the current Aga Khan’s great grandfather, won the race for the first time in 1930 with outsider Blenheim and then claimed back-to-back Derbys in 1935 and 1936 with Bahram and Mahmoud.

Twelve years later his son claimed the first of his two Derby successes with My Love, followed by Tulyar’s victory in 1952.

The current spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims succeeded his grandfather in 1957 but didn’t continue the family’s winning tradition until 24 years later.

And that race will live long in the memory, Walter Swinburn guiding the storied and tragic Shergar to a ten length victory, so dominant that commentator Peter Bromley delivered the immortal line – “It’s Shergar … and you’ll need a telescope to see the rest.”

In the years since the current Aga Khan has won the race four more times, with Shahrastani in 1986, again piloted by the legendary Swinburn, and Kahyasi two years later.

He waited 12 years before Sinndar’s victory under Johnny Murtagh’s patient ride and another 16 before Harzand was the toast of Epsom.

“Winning the Derby is a goal for any owner. It has been for centuries,” he said. “This is a great race with a great history,” the Aga said here. “It’s been that way for three generations of my family.”