Murtagh Explains Derby Pick Johnny Murtagh sat on all of Aidan O´Brien´s Vodafone Derby runners before electing to ride King Of Rome at Epsom on Saturday. The jockey chose to ride the son of Montjeu ahead of his Lingfield Derby Trial conqueror Alessandro Volta, Dante runner-up Frozen Fire and Washington Irving, second in the Derrinstown Stud Trial. "King Of Rome has just stood out to have made the most progress for me. His last piece of work was good, he gave me a good feel, he´s a big, strong horse," said Murtagh. "He´ll stay the distance and he´ll like the ground. There are a lot of positives for him. He has improved quite a bit from his last run. "He´s the one I´ve gone for. I can´t blame anybody else, it´s my decision. I hope I´ve picked the right one. All our horses are going very well and they will be very competitive on Saturday. "Aidan was kind enough to let me ride all the horses in work the other day. I sat on them all and made my decision after that and King Of Rome was the one I came out with," Murtagh told At The Races.
