Racing: Aga Khan's top colts turn Irish Derby into a duel

The 138th renewal of the Irish Derby seems to have reverted to the roots of the sport, when match races were the order of the day. The Classic, one of the premier occasions on the European calendar with a first prize of some half a million, has settled to more or less a straight fight between two of the sport's pre-eminent powerbases.

In an extraordinary duopoly, 10 of the 11 remaining entries for Sunday's showpiece at the Curragh are owned by either the Aga Khan or trained at Ballydoyle. Unusually the Aga Khan has committed both his crack three-year-old colts to the fray, risking the reputations of both.

From Alan de Royer-Dupre's base at Chantilly, with a mighty reputation, comes the unbeaten Dalakhani, winner of the French Derby. Alamshar, third in the Epsom original, is the local hope in the green and red silks, trained virtually on the racecourse by John Oxx. They will be accompanied by one of two pacemakers, probably Alisar.

Although it is increasingly the modern idiom for the big guns, the Aga's horses do not normally turn up for a Group 1 contest mob-handed. There are precedents, though; both Kahyasi, who won, and Doyoun, third, contested the 1988 Derby. Shardari (second) and Sharastani (fourth) both ran in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes two years previously.

But an embarrassment of riches can bring the sort of difficult decisions that most owners would kill to have to wrestle with. "Running both is not ideal," admitted His Highness's Irish stud manager Pat Downes yesterday, "but it is not often that this situation arises for us. It is not really an insurance policy to have them both there, more a matter of doing what is right for each individual horse.

The Irish Derby is the natural progression from the French Derby for Dalakhani. And Alamshar is based locally and the race is the mecca for Irish trainers. There are lots of reasons why they both should run and ultimately, finding out which horse is the best is the point of it all."

The scattergun approach often favoured by Ballydoyle brought a clean sweep of the placings - High Chaparral, Sholokhov and Ballingarry - last year for Aidan O'Brien, who is on an unprecedented hat-trick following his victory with Galileo in 2001. This year's six contenders have yet to be whittled down; they are headed by Epsom runner-up The Great Gatsby, who had just a short-head to spare over Alamshar. The one interloper is Napper Tandy, a rank outsider but confirmed yesterday as a definite starter by the Jim Bolger yard.

Dalakhani is odds-on to take the Group 1 prize and may be the star the three-year-old colts' scene needs. The quality of the grey's victims to date in France has been questioned but there has been no gainsaying the visual quality of his performances, notably when, aided and abetted by another rising star in France, Christophe Soumillon, he turned the Prix du Jockey-Club into a contemptuous tour de force.

Those who struggle to name famous Belgians in the time-honoured party game can add Soumillon to their list. The 22-year-old, who left his native Brussels to seek his fortune in Chantilly at the age of 15, has a flair and talent beyond his years and picked up the cherished position as first jockey to the Aga two years ago.

He is currently leading the French riders' table, has won three of his four local Classics this year and his showboating (some have called it cocky) from the saddle on Dalakhani earlier this month, taunting his rivals all the way down the straight as they vainly strived to catch him, added a real spark to the day.

Since he entered ownership after the death of his father Aly Khan in 1960, the Aga Khan has taken 90 Group or Grade 1 races (or the equivalents before the development of the Group race scheme in 1971) worldwide to date, and bred the winners of 14 others. The latter included Dalakhani's half-brother Daylami, who won six for Godolphin and the prospect of an undefeated century now beckons for the elite racing arm of Sheikh Mohammed's global bloodstock empire.

On Sunday in Italy, Leadership became its 99th top-level success since Balanchine started the glitterball rolling in the Oaks nine years ago and although the boys in blue have nothing with which to challenge on the Curragh (indeed, there is nothing running from Britain for the first time since 1976), the same afternoon Sulamani, one of the team's high-pofile close season headhunts, goes for glory in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.