Saturday's G1 Cazoo Derby is no ordinary Derby, being placed squarely in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and bearing the title “In Memory of Lester Piggott”, so the onus is on the latest collection of elite middle-distance colts to rise to the occasion. Famed for his ability to pick and choose in his heyday, the question is what would the Longfellow have opted for in this line-up? Few would say anything other than the edition's pop idol Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), whose Dante win had all the purists pricking up their ears, but then there is the Ballydoyle collective and the draw of the ruthless galloper Stone Age (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), or would he have sided with the surefire stayers Changingoftheguard (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire})? If the rain comes in stair-rods, as it could, and it comes up soft then it will take a Teenoso-like performance to win, but if the ground stays perfectly in the middle as it was on Friday then it is odds-on that Lester would have been eagle-eyeing Sir Michael Stoute's potential boy wonder.
Hitting Them For Six
It is 41 years since the “Choirboy” Walter Swinburn enjoyed the perfect Epsom spin on the first of Stoute's Blue Riband heroes Shergar (GB) and 11 since Ryan Moore delivered a fifth on Workforce (GB), so in cricket terminology victory for Saeed Suhail's 'TDN Rising Star' Desert Crown would be delivering that sacred six for the cricket-devoted master of Freemason Lodge. Habitually prone to bat away all unwelcome attention, the famed Barbadian will be unable to stem the flow of warmth that will inevitably come his way if his unbeaten colt can come through this examination with that record intact. As the Sir Henry Cecil story showed, racing has its way of raising up its gods when they are at their most vulnerable and while it may seem fanciful, it could be that Desert Crown has been gifted following the sad passing of his partner Coral Pritchard-Gordon. If there is such a thing as a stand-out on potential, this colt represents it and he looks to possess a rare amount of ability. Like Swinburn back in the day, it is a jockey without abundant big-race experience who is charged with the responsibility but there is little to fear where the tactically-astute Yamaha-riding Richard Kingscote is concerned.
The Great Obstacle
Stoute's experience with The Queen's Carlton House (Street Cry {Ire}) in 2011 is a reminder that to get to Tesio's winning post first you have to subdue the force of Coolmore, which has been omnipresent ever since Galileo set a new tone 21 years ago. While the 2011 winner Pour Moi (Ire) was a rare runner for the operation not trained by Aidan O'Brien, it is Rosegreen that has come to be seen as the great harvester of Derby heroes over the past two decades. Remarkably, six of O'Brien's record eight winners have come in the last 10 renewals and while it is possible to waylay the stable's progress it is nigh-on impossible to achieve anything other than a temporary interruption to the machine. The Derby is in the very bricks, mortar and soil of the Co. Tipperary establishment and it always seems to wend its way back there one way or another. Be they in the form of the remorseless front-runner Serpentine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the strong late closer Wings of Eagles (Fr) (Pour Moi {Ire}), long-shots like that pair or “good things” such as Australia (GB) or Camelot (GB), it matters not. Aidan O'Brien just does Derbys.
A New Era
Ballydoyle began its Derby saga in cahoots with the American kingpins Raymond Guest, Charles Engelhard and John Galbreath, before forging a partnership in steel with Robert Sangster. In recent times, it has been Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith who have profited from sailing on the good ship and now it is the time of Georg von Opel's Westerberg and Peter Brant. Von Opel's increasingly-prevalent silks would have been carried by the long-time ante-post favourite Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) had he made the gig, but now they are sported solely by the dominant Chester Vase winner Changingoftheguard. Is there a story involved in this one, who was bred by Ben Sangster and whose family features the Piggott-bred Superstar Leo (Ire) (College Chapel {GB})? Brant's stock is fast on the rise in Europe and in Stone Age he has a colt who seems to have been sculpted with all the natural and learned guile of the greatest trainer in the history of Thoroughbred racing.
The Long Wait
When Stavros Niarchos began his quest for a Derby winner back in the late 70s, it would have been surprising that it would still not be forthcoming over 40 years later. Despite the ongoing pursuit for the holy grail, the distant 1985 and 2012 runner's-up Law Society and Main Sequence (Aldebaran) remain the closest it has come to fruition. How remarkable it would be if the 23-year-old Donnacha O'Brien were to supply it with Piz Badile, a relative of the emotive 2007 Oaks heroine Light Shift (Kingmambo). His sire Ulysses was only 12th in the 2016 renewal before hitting the heights at four and O'Brien, Jr. has stated that he expects the imposing homebred to be better in 2023, but there was enough in his battling win in Leopardstown's Apr. 2 G3 Ballysax S. to suggest he is not just one for the future.
Will It Go West?
The idea that West Wind Blows (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) would be lining up here seemed unlikely in the immediate aftermath of getting loose before the start of Newbury's Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup British EBF Conditions S. and being withdrawn from that Apr. 17 contest won by the subsequent Listed Lingfield Derby Trial runner-up Walk of Stars (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). That was before Abdulla Al Mansoori's son of the G1 Prix de Diane heroine West Wind (GB) (Machiavellian) went to Nottingham and dominated a 10-furlong novice in which the G3 Sandown Classic Trial fourth Franz Strauss (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) was soundly beaten. Big and powerful, the bay has paid a visit here in the interim and rates as the race's most intriguing outsiders for Simon and Ed Crisford.
“The mile and a half is well within his reach and that trip will probably see the best of him, as he has very high cruising gears,” jockey Jack Mitchell said. “He is relatively unexposed and I just hope that he can run his race. I was quite happy with stall 11, as if he does run a bit keen we know that we are not boxed on the inside and that if he does pull I can let him go on and use his stride.”
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