Heffernan gets ride on Galileo

The news during the week that Micheal Kinane would be on duty in France tomorrow and not riding Galileo caused one bookmaker to lengthen Galileo's ante-post odds for the Derrinstown Derby Trial, but substitute Seamus Heffernan looks set to punish such gestures.

Heffernan has been given the hot seat on the 6 to 1 Derby second-favourite as Galileo bids to follow the Sinndar route to Epsom glory. Standing in his way at Leopardstown tomorrow will be the filly Rayyana and just three others.

The jockey has stepped in successfully for Kinane in the past, most notably on Beckett in last year's National Stakes, and Galileo can provide Heffernan with a much more valuable second winner of 2001 compared to the first at Tramore last month.

Aidan O'Brien said yesterday: "Seamus rides Galileo every morning and in all his work and knows the horse very well. This will be the first time the horse has raced on fast ground, but he is such a good-moving horse it should not be a problem."

The Ballydoyle trainer also saddles El Bueno, and the big danger is posed by Sinndar's trainer John Oxx, who saddles both Rayyana and the track winner Exaltation.

Rayyana has already been backed for the Epsom Oaks, and Oxx said yesterday: "She has a lot of good qualities and I hope she is an Oaks filly, but Sunday should be a proper test. Originally we were going to wait for a race at Cork. The stiffer track and the stiffer opposition should tell us more."

O'Brien will also have a close eye at Longchamp where he runs Kings County (Kinane), Black Minnaloushe (Jamie Spencer) and Modigliani (Paul Scallan) in the French 2,000 Guineas. The Ballydoyle trainer will also have Milan in the Lupin, Rose Gypsy in the 1,000 Guineas. And the Irish interest won't end there as Kevin Prendergast's Rebelline also goes in the fillies classic.

On the home front, O'Brien must also be fancied to win at Leopardstown with the impeccably-bred $3.4 million purchase Sophisticat in the opener and Ice Dancer, runner-up to Rayyana on his first start in the mile and a half maiden.