Damysus and Nightwalker pass muster in Epsom gallop

John and Thady Gosden sent their Betfred Derby contenders Damysus and Nightwalker through their paces at Epsom on Tuesday.

The pair were last seen finishing runner-up and fifth in the Dante Stakes at York – a race Gosden senior won with Benny The Dip and Golden Horn before landing the premier Classic.

Thady Gosden said: “It’s a great thing to do with them when it’s quiet, relaxed and not overly stressful.

“It’s a very unique track which is impossible to emulate anywhere and just for them to get a feel for it and perhaps get them a few strides quicker in the race can only be a positive thing.

“They both handled it very well. They’re very intelligent horses, the pair of them, really taking it in. You could see Damysus (James Doyle) pricking his ears coming to the line.

“They’re slightly different types, you would assume, but their first introduction to the place and they’ve both travelled smoothly through it and when they came to join each other they quicken up nicely over the line.”

Of their efforts at York, Gosden said: “Neither of them had hugely hard races in the Dante, they were both doing their best work late on.

“They’re both talented colts, both have a good turn of foot and both travel well in their races. Also, we know it’s a big occasion and it’s very easy for it to get to them a little bit but just on the evidence here this morning they seem to handle everything very well.

“Of course, with tens of thousands of people here on Derby Day it changes the dynamic slightly, but on the evidence of this morning I couldn’t be happier with them.”

On the chances of Damysus, Gosden went on: “James (Doyle) was very happy with him today. He’s a horse who’s a very laid-back character, but every start this year he’s become more alert, woken up and made progress.

“The way he travelled round there this morning, he’s done everything James has asked him to do, he’s very well balanced and a very together horse and he handled the track great this morning.

“With the Wathnan team we’d earmarked this race for him a while back and planned the route to it which hopefully is going as we’d hoped.”

On Nightwalker, who was partnered by Robert Havlin, he added: “He’s always shaped like a horse who would get the mile and a half no problem and of course he’s bred to as well, and you’d like to think he’ll take another step forward and improve for it.

“He’s pretty laid-back. He’s obviously a horse that we inherited from Sir Michael Stoute at the end of last year so we were getting to know him early in the year and he really seems to have matured this year.”

On which one might hold the best, he said: “They’re both talented colts and I guess we’ll have a definitive answer to that in a couple of weeks!”