Decision on whether to supplement Passenger for the Derby will be left late

Stoute colt ‘very well’ after eyecatching Dante performance.

Connections are considering adding Passenger into the Betfred Derby following his fine effort in the Dante last week – but will leave a final decision as late as possible.

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, the son of Ulysses burst on to the scene with a taking victory in the Wood Ditton on debut and having seen his hopes of running in the Dee Stakes at Chester washed away by the deluge that plagued the Roodee fixture, the progressive colt was added into the Dante line-up at a cost of GBP 14,000.

Sent off the 9-2 favourite for the York Group Two, Passenger ran a race full of promise and was somewhat unfortunate not to finish any better than third, with jockey Richard Kingscote blaming himself after suffering plenty of traffic issues up the Knavesmire straight.

It will now cost a further GBP 85,000 to supplement Passenger for Epsom, with the Niarchos family-owned three-year-old a best price of 13-2 to give Stoute back-to-back Derby victories.

“I would say it is being considered seriously, we don’t have to make a decision until the weekend because the supplementary stage is on Monday,” said Alan Cooper, racing manager for the owners, when asked about Passenger being supplemented.

“It’s less than a week since he ran so Sir Michael quite naturally would like to wait until he has to make his recommendations.

“He only ran last Thursday and today is Wednesday. We don’t have to make a decision until Monday, so we will make one in due course. But the horse is very well.

“He’s been a very progressive horse all spring which is very encouraging. He’s going to have plenty of big-race entries and Sir Michael will decide what we are going to do.”

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