White Birch ‘looks super’, as connections look forward to return of Derby third

Curragh date could be seasonal starting point.

Next month’s Alleged Stakes has been identified as a potential comeback target for last season’s Derby third White Birch.

John Joseph Murphy’s grey kicked off his three-year-old campaign in the best possible fashion by winning the Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown and was beaten only a neck into second place by The Foxes on his next appearance in the Dante at York.

The Ulysses colt ran another fine race in defeat when placed behind Auguste Rodin and King Of Steel in the premier Classic at Epsom, and while he disappointed in the Irish Derby, he rounded off his season with a creditable fourth place in a Group Three at Leopardstown in September.

George Murphy, assistant to his father, reports White Birch to have wintered well and hopes he will return to competitive action at the Curragh on April 6, granted suitable conditions.

“He’s in full work and looks super, he’s training very nicely,” he said.

“He’s a fine, big, tall horse so you’d hope he could improve from three to four. He’s doing everything nicely at the moment.

“I’d say that (Alleged Stakes) could be an option, but if the ground is completely bottomless we might just hold off for another bit. We’ll just see what the weather does over the next couple of weeks, but that’s definitely in our minds at the moment, to go for the Alleged.

“It’s got to the stage where you nearly can’t remember a good day it’s been raining for so long, but it’s surely got to turn at some stage.”

Should White Birch come through his return with flying colours, a return to Group One company in the Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 26 could be on his agenda.

Murphy added: “There’s a few races, those two (Alleged Stakes and Tattersalls Gold Cup) are high up on the list at the moment, but it’s been so difficult with the weather you just don’t know which way things are going to go over the next fortnight.

“We’ll play it by ear for the moment, but we’ll probably start over a mile and a quarter and explore going a bit further as the year goes on, that’s the way we’d be looking at it.”

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