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Colm O’Donoghue has come in for the plum ride on Cape Blanco in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.

The mount on the Aidan O’Brien-trained Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby winner became available when regular rider Johnny Murtagh picked up a six-day suspension at Newmarket’s July meeting.

Like Seamie Heffernan, O’Donoghue is a regular partner of second and third strings for O’Brien in the big races, and hit the Group One target last season on the stable’s Jan Vermeer in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud.

Impressive in the Dante Stakes at York when beating subsequent runaway Epsom Derby hero Workforce, Cape Blanco disappointed in the French Derby before bouncing back at the Curragh.

The pair face a rematch at the weekend, with Workforce the evens favourite and Cape Blanco available at 13-2 in a place.

Aidan O’Brien bids for a fifth consecutive Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and an eighth in all when he saddles a five-strong team headed by Cape Blanco at the Curragh today.

Stable jockey Johnny Murtagh has chosen to ride the French Derby flop instead of Epsom Derby fourth Jan Vermeer, who will be the mount of Seamus Heffernan.

“The French race was a bit messy, but we’re not really sure what happened that day,” said O’Brien.

“It wasn’t his running and he just wasn’t the horse he was at York (where he beat subsequent Epsom hero Workforce in the Dante). Maybe he just had an off-day, which every horse is entitled to have.

“He hasn’t really done a lot of work as he doesn’t take a lot of work, but everything he’s done we’ve been happy with.”

On Jan Vermeer, the Ballydoyle handler added: “He ran well at Epsom, but with the benefit of hindsight we might have been better going to France for an easier mile and a quarter rather than the gruelling mile and a half.

“He probably didn’t get enough time between his first run at the Curragh and Epsom to make the progress fitness-wise that we would have liked.

“But he seems to have been in good form since and we’ve had a little bit more time between Epsom and the Curragh than we did between the Curragh and Epsom the first time.”

O’Brien also runs Derby second At First Sight (Joseph O’Brien) and fifth home Midas Touch (Colm O’Donoghue), as well as Bright Horizon (Sean Levey).