Dettori looking forward to Leopardstown

This Friday evening's Leopardstown card is billed as the "British-Irish Raceday" but it is the Italian Frankie Dettori who is set to be the star attraction.

The Co Dublin track has confirmed the controversial superstar jockey, who returned to action at Epsom last week after a six-month ban for cocaine-use, will ride on the card where the twin Listed race features are the new King George V Cup and the Seamus/Rosemary McGrath Saval Beg Stakes.

“Leopardstown is one of my favourite courses and I have been very lucky there,” Dettori said. “I have heard so much about the King George V Cup and I’m just delighted to be part of what promises to be a great historic occasion.”

The 11-furlong Listed event, highlight of a programme jointly hosted by the British-Irish chamber of commerce, has attracted 20 entries, including Patrick Prendergast’s Irish Derby hope Sugar Boy, whose Sandown Classic Trial win has been boosted since by Libertarian and Galileo Rock at Epsom.

“Unless there is some juice in the ground he won’t run and will instead go straight for the Irish Derby,” Prendergast reported.

Ground conditions were fast at the track yesterday, good news for John Oxx's star stayer Saddlers Rock, one of 17 entries in the Saval Beg, Ireland's main trial for the Ascot Gold Cup.