Dylan Mouth To Defend Title

Defending champion Dylan Mouth (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) will have his last dance in Italy before moving to Marco Botti’s yard at Newmarket in today’s G1 Gran Premio Del Jockey Club, where he will try to update some chapters of the record book. The 4-year-old entire, owned by Scuderia Effevi, is unbeaten in 10 starts at home for a combined margins of 35.5 lengths, while he ran poorly in his two tries abroad. This afternoon he could become the first horse to win the G1 Gran Premio Di Milano and Gran Premio Del Jockey Club since Tony Bin, the 1988 Arc de Triomphe hero, and the fifth overall. Dylan Mouth could set another record, becoming the fourth winner of two Jockey Clubs after Schiaparelli (2007-2009), the French Norman in the 1950s, and the filly Erba in the 1920s.

He will be opposed again by Duca Di Mantova (GB) (Manduro {Ger}), runner-up in last year’s Jockey Club, and the Moroccan-bred Billabong (Mor) (Gentlewave {Ire}), beaten by five lengths by the favorite in the G1 Gran Premio Di Milano last June. The main danger for Dylan Mouth is the German filly Lovelyn (Ger) (Tiger Hill {Ire}), who grabbed a last-gasp win in the G2 Oaks D’Italia in May at the same venue. The filly, trained by Peter Schiergen, already defeated older horses in the G2 Grosser Hansa Preis in June at Hamburg, but failed to perform in the G1 Preis Der Diana, where she never traveled well around the sharp turns of Dusseldorf racecourse. Fillies and mares have largely been unlucky in the Jockey Club, and the last winner was Awaasif in 1983 for Sheikh Mohammed. The last to score the Oaks D’Italia-Jockey Club double was Astolfina for Federico Tesio in 1948.