Chester May Festival 2024 day one: Grosvenor Square can win the Chester Vase

GROSVENOR SQUARE can give Aidan O'Brien another victory in the Boodles Chester Vase Stakes (3.40pm) on day one of the Boodles Chester May Festival. And with success in the Group Three feature on the Roodee the three-year-old can book his ticket to next month's Betfred Derby at Epsom.

The Ballydoyle handler has won this race a record 10 times and several of his previous winners have gone on to contest the Derby, with Ruleroftheworld winning both races in 2013 and Treasure Beach finishing second at Epsom before taking the Irish Derby following his Vase victory two years earlier. While 2017 Derby hero Wings of Eagles was also runner-up on the Roodee before his success in Flat racing's blue riband.

Having seen his big hope for the season City Of Troy bomb out in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday, O'Brien will be readying his squad for the Derby over the next week or so with the Trials at Chester, Lingfield, Leopardstown and York. City Of Troy and Henry Longfellow remain his main hopes in the betting for Classic glory next month but Grosvenor Square can at least become part of his Derby team at Epsom on June 1 by taking the Vase. The son of Galileo won two of his three starts as a juvenile, scoring on his debut in the maiden at Galway last September before finishing a close third behind Deepone in the Group Two Beresford Stakes a couple of weeks later. He landed another success when scoring comfortably from stable-mate Cambridge in the Group Three Eyrefield Stakes over 1m1f at Leopardstown in October.

He returns to action on the Roodee and stepping up in trip again will bring out more improvement. He looks a potentially smart middle distance performer and if he impresses on the Roodee could be a lot shorter for