Ed Walker

Saturday sees racing continue its measured defiance of the chaos around the globe, with the 241st renewal of one of the beautiful races, the G1 Investec Derby, emanating light as a beacon to the world's audience from its traditional home of Epsom Downs in Surrey. As it is, this will likely be the only post-Royal Ascot one, which adds a fascinating new dimension to a dramatically purse-reduced renewal and also to the stage-sharing G1 Investec Oaks. Due to the vagaries of the current situation, only one of the 24 colts...

G1 Investec Derby favourite English King (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) and new rider Frankie Dettori had an opportunity to get acquainted with one another on the Lambourn gallops on Wednesday, with the Italian partnering the Ed Walker-trained Listed Derby Trial S. winner in a piece of work. "Today is 10 days out from the Derby, which is always when I would do my last proper piece of work with a horse, and he worked very well," Walker said. "Frankie came in and had a sit on him, and everything went smoothly....

Frankie Dettori, who on Monday picked up the mount on favourite English King (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) in the July 4 G1 Investec Derby, told Sky Sports Racing on Tuesday that he will get acquainted with Bjorn Nielsen's Listed Derby Trial S. winner this week. "I'm going to go and ride him this week," Dettori said. "I can only go on what I've seen, but he was impressive at Newcastle last year, and very impressive at Lingfield. "He's interesting. On the plus side, he went round Lingfield like it was a...

Twelve months after Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) brought kudos back to Lingfield's Listed Derby Trial, the former group 3 contest played host to another with potential to roll it back to the glory days of High-Rise (Ire), Kahyasi (Ire) and Slip Anchor (GB). While Bjorn Nielsen's colours were being adorned by Frankie Dettori at Newmarket, the Ed Walker-trained English King (GB) (Camelot {GB}) was carrying them around this Epsom-like terrain as if he was on wheels. Moments after he had brushed aside the G3 Zetland S. runner-up Berkshire...

Matthew Schera's Glorious Empire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}--Humble And Proud {Ire}, by Pivotal {GB}), who won the 2018 GI Sword Dancer S. a handful of races removed from a victory in a Saratoga $50,000 claimer, has been retired from racing, according to trainer James F. 'Chuck' Lawrence II. The 9-year-old gelding left the Fair Hill Training Center early last month for a farm owned by Lawrence's mother in Marshall, Va., about an hour and a half west of Laurel Park. "He seems quite happy with his new lifestyle," Lawrence...