'She's great and we've just been sitting and waiting'

Colin Keane celebrated one of the biggest moments of his career on Villanova Queen in June, but now the four-time Irish champion jockey will try to pit her downfall on Mutasarref in the Group 3 Desmond Stakes.

Villanova Queen's storming late surge down the outside handed her victory in the Kensington Palace Stakes and provided Keane with the first Royal Ascot winner of his career. Indeed, it was his first success of any sort at the track.

The imposing daughter of Mastercraftsman has always been held in high regard by Jessica Harrington, and she is starting to really fulfill her potential now. 

Her revised rating of 104 is just 1lb shy of the top-rated Goldana, and the sun has finally started to shine in Ireland so she is likely to get her preferred ground. The quicker it is, the better chance she has.

Thornbrook was a tasty juvenile last year. She made an impressive winning debut at this track before finishing a close third to Meditate in the Debutante Stakes, and she was a single-figure price to beat Tahiyra in the Moyglare Stakes too.

After a subdued return, she has really caught fire of late and backed up a Listed win at Chantilly with a fine effort in a Group 3 at Ascot on King George day. Indeed, she would have been closer with a clearer run there too.

Alfred Munnings was vying for ante-post favouritism for this year's Derby once upon a time, but he has not progressed as hoped and Aidan O'Brien has opted for cheekpieces in an attempt to relight the fire he showed on his debut.

Goldana might prefer slower ground, as would Lord Massusus, and Mutasarref has been a shade disappointing this season. 

Four of the nine runners are three-year-olds, and it is worth pointing out that six of the last seven winners, including the last four, have been that age.

Three of the last four favourites have been successful, too, with all but one of them odds-on.

What they say

Joseph O'Brien, trainer of Goldana and Thornbrook
Goldana has been running consistently well and we're hoping to pick up some more black type with her here. Thornbrook had a good run at Ascot the last day. We were very pleased with the way she ran there and we're expecting another nice run from her.

Jessica Harrington, trainer of Villanova Queen
She's great. We've just been sitting and waiting for the ground to change for her as she has to have quick ground. Thankfully she looks like she might get her wish at Leopardstown. She's done very well since Royal Ascot and has been ready to run for quite a while, but we've just had to be patient with the ground. I thought we might have stepped her up in trip by now but we just haven't been able to run her with the way the ground was over the last six weeks.

Aidan O'Brien, trainer of Alfred Munnings
We think he's going the right way, but we haven't got him back to where we thought he was yet. Hopefully he will run better again. We're putting cheekpieces on him because we think there is more in there than we are getting, so let's see how he gets on.

Joe Murphy, trainer of Lord Massusus
We were disappointed with him the last day but they got racing a bit too early. He was drawn in the outside stall that day and it's the same again here, so he's not getting much luck on that front. I'd be worried about the ground for him if it got very quick.

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