Cape Blanco one of 23 declared for French Derby Aidan O'Brien's Dante Stakes winner Cape Blanco features among a final field of 23 runners in the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly on Sunday. The Galileo colt took his unbeaten record to four with an impressive success in the recognised Derby trial on the Knavesmire, but connections decided to bypass Epsom in favour of this French equivalent. He seems well placed in stall seven while his Ballydoyle handler has an interesting second string to his bow in Viscount Nelson (stall six), a fine third in last month's Irish 2000 Guineas. The Brian Meehan-trained Dancing David bids to bounce back to winning ways having been narrowly denied by Epsom aspirant Azmeel in the Dee Stakes at Chester, but a wide draw in stall 21 seems far from ideal. Godolphin's Simon De Montfort completes the British challenge and is in stall one for Mahmood Al Zarooni. French 2000 Guineas winner Lope De Vega (stall 20) heads the home team, while Frankie Dettori takes the ride on Pain Perdu (stall 18) as Ahmed Ajtebi rides the Godolphin runner. Other interesting contenders include Pascal Bary's Ice Blue (stall three), the mount of Ryan Moore, and the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Behkabad (stall 13). The notable absentee is John Dunlop's Elusive Pimpernel who has suffered a minor setback. Rouget is looking for back-to-back wins in the race following the success of Le Havre 12 months ago and Georges Rimauld, racing manager to Behkabad's owner the Aga Khan, is confident of a bold show.
