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For many, White Birch was an unlikely loser of the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York when beaten a neck behind The Foxes.

For many, White Birch was an unlikely loser of the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York when beaten a neck behind The Foxes. The Ulysses colt is becoming known for his late run, which was successful when coming from last-to-first in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes on seasonal reappearance at Leopardstown.

White Birch is the flag-bearer for trainer John Murphy, who trains around 40 horses in County Cork. He is probably better known for his exploits over jumps, having saddled Newmill to win the 2006 Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

In an interview with The Jockey Club, Murphy said: "It's really exciting to have my first Derby runner and we are really looking forward to it. For us it's huge – a mixture of feeling excitement and apprehension! The Derby is a lot of people's dream and it is our dream.

"I thought he ran really well at York. We didn't want to run him in Ireland as the ground was very soft and we hoped there would be better ground in York as we didn't want to run him again on heavy ground. He won well at Dundalk, where it generally rides as good/good to firm.

"We were very happy with him at York. He was a bit unlucky at the start, he had a little bluff and everything counts at that level. But he stayed on well and finished the race really strong. It wasn't the plan to track them all in York but he lost at least a length at the start and then stayed on really well. It looks like he will stay [a mile and a half] but nobody can really answer that question at this stage.

"There have been no issues at home since and we are delighted with him. He travels very well which is important at Epsom I believe.

"Without a doubt he was always very special. We had a very good filly a long time ago called Tuscan Evening [who went on to become a Grade One winner in the USA]. She was always very high-class. This guy made a lovely start in a maiden at Naas and did it easily in Dundalk. After that, there was no place to go other than taking a step forward and we were confident going into Leopardstown that he would run really well."

White Birch's regular rider Shane Foley is booked to ride Jessica Harrington's Sprewell in the Epsom Classic, which poses a problem for Murphy.

He said: "The jockey situation is in the air at the moment and we are not fully decided. We have a few options. Nine days is a long time with horses – you never who is going to drop and who is going to become available so we'll just take some time to come to a decision."