The official start of summer sees the first of European racing’s three main Derby prizes up for grabs, with Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore teaming up to try and land Sunday’s Qatar Prix du Jockey Club in Chantilly.
Racing’s most potent partnership relies on Camille Pissarro in the €1.5 million French Derby, which this year takes place before next weekend’s Epsom action.
Delacroix and The Lion In Winter remain on course for English racing’s ‘Blue Riband’ next Saturday and appear to be O’Brien’s two main middle-distance classic hopes this season. The Irish Derby takes place on June 29.
Camille Pissarro will be joined in Sunday’s 18-runner field by stable companion Trinity College, the mount of Wayne Lordan.
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The “Jockey Club” has traditionally played second-fiddle to Epsom in Ballydoyle’s Derby priorities. There was over 20 years of failure before O’Brien finally won it in 2021 with St Mark’s Basilica.
He was just the third ever Irish-trained winner of France’s premier classic, decades after the Robert Sangster owned pair Assert and Caerleon won back-to-back in 1982 and 1983.
Moore is also a previous French Derby winner on The Grey Gatsby 11 years ago.
Having guided Henri Matisse to French Guineas glory at Longchamp earlier this month and sluiced up in last weekend’s Irish 1000 Guineas on Lake Victoria, Moore is on a classic roll and has already enjoyed some good fortune ahead of Sunday’s big race.
The draw around Chantilly’s 10½ furlongs is always a major factor but even more so with 18 runners.
Traditionally a double-digit wide draw is regarded as a negative. Camille Pissarro is bang on the rail in stall one. Moore might ideally prefer Trinity College’s spot in three in terms of options, but it’s a lot better than the fancied home pair Nitoi and Parachutiste on the outside.
Camille Pissarro has at least got better luck in the draw than in the French Guineas where he was 15 of 16 around Longchamp’s tight mile. He did well to reach third behind his stable companion, after which Christophe Soumillon immediately advised advised O’Brien to consider him for the French Derby.
The Belgian rider landed the Lagardere on Camille Pissarro as a two-year-old but with Moore riding the Irish number one, Soumillon teams up with Detain, one of four English trained hopefuls. He too ran in the “Poulains” and was sixth to Henri Matisse. The Gosden team, successful with Mishriff in 2020, have another runner in Bowmark.
Nothing was drawn wider in the French Guineas than Luther, who ran on to be fourth. He represents Kieran Shoemark and Charlie Fellowes who lost the ‘Pouliches’ in the stewards’ room after She’s Perfect’s interference with Zaragina.
The latter’s late owner and breeder, the Aga Khan, won the Jockey Club six times. Both Ridari and Azimpour will carry his famous green silks this time. Mickael Barzalona has opted for Ridari, who shapes as relishing the step up to this trip. He is by the stallion Churchill who sired the 2022 winner Vadeni.
Chantilly presents its own kind of Derby challenge and O’Brien commented: “We feel you need a miler that stays, that’s the way the French Derby is now over 10 furlongs.
“Before you’d need a classic middle-distance horse over a mile and a half. Now you need a miler that gets nine furlongs, I think, and might get a bit further.”
He added: “The Epsom horses, if you have a real good mile-and-a-quarter horse, they might get away with a mile and a half there and then coming to the Curragh, it’s a bit more straightforward, but they need to get a mile and a half well.”
Sunday’s feature is off at 3.05pm Irish-time and live on Sky Sports Racing. Elsewhere on the Chantilly card, Joseph O’Brien has snapped up Maxime Guyon to ride Midnight Strike in a Listed race after the Derby.
An intense domestic bank holiday programme includes a pair of National Hunt cards on Saturday.
Listowel kicks off three-days of action with a Mares Hurdle that sees champion jockey Paul Townend travel to the Kingdom for a single ride on Maughreen.
The most high-profile runner on view will be the 2021 Irish St Leger hero Sonnyboyliston who gets a new jumping career off to a start in the following maiden hurdle.
[ Aidan O’Brien’s outstanding stayer Kyprios retired after aggravating old injuryOpens in new window ]
Sonnboyliston is now with Charles Byrnes who ran him in the Vintage Crop Stakes last time. How many of this opposition could get within ten lengths of Kyprios on the flat is debatable.
Victory for the eight-year-old would be a boost for Byrnes and his son Philip, whose controversial unseat from Redwood Queen at Wexford on Wednesday is being investigated by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB).
Redwood Queen, who had drifted in betting for the contest, looked to have a claiming hurdle race won until unshipping her rider.
The incident has generated significant comment including immediately afterwards on Racing TV, where it was described as a “soft unseat” by one pundit.
Although the race-day stewards at Wexford reviewed the unseating, they took no further action. However, the IHRB has subsequently opted to carry out a review of the incident.
Charles Byrnes defended his son on Friday, arguing it is clear what occurred at the final hurdle.
“It’s obvious what happened,” said the Co Limerick trainer. “He was trying to get the mare to go in and pop it, because obviously she had the race won, and she came up out of his hands and blew him out of the saddle. There’s no one hurting more than Philip about it.”
