Europe’s most commercially relevant Derby takes place in Chantilly on Sunday. The Qatar Prix Du Jockey Club isn’t the most historic Derby. It mightn’t even be the most coveted. It certainly isn’t the most high-profile, nor is it worth the most prizemoney. But in terms of shaping the thoroughbred breed, France does what it says on the Derby tin.
That’s because it isn’t run at a mile and a half. Instead, the Jockey Club is an extended mile and a quarter, or 2,100 metres. That’s just 300 metres less than next week’s Epsom Derby or the Irish Derby at the Curragh 22 days afterwards. In bloodstock valuation terms, though, those 300 metres represent a chasm.
When the French opted to cut their Derby test from a mile and a half in 2005, even then it was an acknowledgment of commercial reality. What had been the ultimate classic distance for centuries was already unfashionable. Once the definition of thoroughbred class, the capacity to carry speed over 12-furlongs became code for stamina and there’s no more poisonous word in the bloodstock game here.
It’s why Constitution River lines up at Chantilly this weekend rather than waiting for Epsom. Results have a way of confounding expectations but as of now Constitution River is widely regarded as Aidan O’Brien’s best three-year-old colt. He’s got a touch of stardust. A French Derby success will automatically make him a hugely valuable stallion prospect. Winning at Epsom won’t.
Constitution River has wide draw to overcome in Sunday’s French Derby at Chantilly
Appeal remains ‘an option’ for jockey Philip Byrnes after 21-day dangerous riding ban
Constitution River classic call underlines how Epsom Derby is looking its age
Jockey Philip Byrnes gets 21-day ban for dangerous riding in dramatic handicap hurdle
It’s a sorry fact of racing life, but the Epsom Derby’s historic role as the race that shapes the thoroughbred is redundant. It is no longer the ultimate maker of champions that go on to shape the breed. Bloodstock fashion has dated it, and if the sport’s central participants don’t buy the hype any more, why should anyone else?
No one’s more central than Coolmore Stud’s kingpin John Magnier. It’s ironic how the bloodstock game’s ultimate fashion house has been keeping the Derby show going at Epsom and the Curragh because Coolmore’s transformation of the breeding industry has been rooted in delivering speed. Without Magnier’s staunch support of both races they would have long since become hollow tests. But the Constitution River call smacks of business is business.
Coolmore’s wealth of talent means Benvenuto Cellini is likely to start favourite at Epsom in eight days. But it’s hard to ignore the significance of his stablemate’s switch to Paris. This is a colt sure to stay 10-furlongs and with a shot at getting 12. It used to be an ideal scenario heading to Epsom. In the past Constitution River would have gone there. But not this time.
Another irony is how Coolmore’s most prepotent stallion of the last two decades was a classic mile-and-a-half racehorse. Galileo wound up transforming the breed but before his progeny started winning all round them his commercial appeal as a dual Derby and King George winner was limited. He was an exception to prove the rule.
Coolmore retired Los Angeles to stud last winter. A Group One winning two-year-old and an Irish Derby winner at three, he even scored at 10-furlongs in the Tattersalls Gold Cup as an older horse. But he’s been banished to the National Hunt sire ranks alongside four other Epsom Derby winners of the last decade: Golden Horn, Harzand, Wings Of Eagles and Masar.
Coolmore has won the last three Derbies at Epsom. Both Auguste Rodin and City of Troy were Group One winning juveniles and as with so many modern Derby winners spent much of their subsequent careers proving they weren’t “just” mile-and-a-half horses; last year’s winner Lambourn already looks to be damned as being just that.
In 2021, St Mark’s Basilica won a first French Derby for Aidan O’Brien. He’s now a rising star of the stallion ranks. He never ran at 12 furlongs. Camille Pissarro won last year’s Jockey Club. He never won again but didn’t need to. He stood this Spring at an opening stud fee of €30,000. The French Derby is a stallion-making race. Epsom increasingly isn’t.
Hours before the Jockey Club field sweep past “the Chateau” at Chantilly, the world’s real foremost mile-and-a-half Derby will already have been run on Sunday. The Japanese Derby, the Tokyo Yushun, is worth about €3.6 million and will take place in front of almost 100,000 fans.
Japan’s faith in middle-distance stamina increasingly makes it an outlier in global racing. But it is a refreshing anomaly that helps make it perhaps the world’s most dynamic racing nation right now. It’s a vivid contrast to how middle-distance performance is largely an outmoded commercial concept in Europe and the US.
[ Constitution River favourite to deliver O’Brien a third French Derby successOpens in new window ]
The Tokyo Yushun does shape the breed in Japan. So does its Triple Crown which unlike here is a viable concept. It helps that the Satsuki Sho, Japan’s equivalent of the 2000 Guineas, is run at 10 furlongs. The third leg is the St Leger or Kikuka Sho run over almost two miles. No top stallion prospect in Europe would run at such a distance.
The Triple Crown in this part of the world is a relic. Coolmore’s hard-headed call to send Constitution River to Chantilly rather than Epsom spells more bad news for an English Derby that, sadly, is increasingly looking its age.
Something for the Weekend
The former Grade One winner Murcia (2.06, Saturday) hasn’t pulled up many trees this season, but Willie Mullins has found her a good opportunity at Listowel for a first victory since that top-flight victory at Aintree last year.
Before that, both Teologia and Maxminelli (8.30, Friday) just squeeze inside the 70-rated limit for tonight’s Down Royal maiden finale. Both also finished runner-up on their last starts and at the same Ballinrobe meeting earlier this month. Henry De Bromhead’s runner looks to have an edge in likely progression.
