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Epsom: Can Auguste Rodin Bounce Back In The Derby?

For once in these days of volatile climate, the sun is shining on the Surrey Downs and all the righteous colts assembled for the latest G1 Betfred Derby. Lester Piggott, who is commemorated by one of the card's handicaps carrying his name, was always refererred to patronisingly as the “housewife's choice” in the Blue Riband thanks largely to his association with Ballydoyle. Rosegreen's sacred establishment continues to support this mile-and-a-half Classic like a pillar of iron and 2023's chosen one is Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), whose attempt at Nijinsky's Triple Crown came to an abrupt halt in the 2000 Guineas. Of all the Longfellow's Derby winners, none had to conjure a magic-trick turnaround of this nature so Saturday's race carries that bit of extra intrigue.

What Auguste Rodin lacks in last-time-out form, he makes up for with a mix of reputation and juvenile achievement representing the trainer who has continually bent the accepted perceived knowledge of what is possible in this sport. After all, this is the stable that engineered a Slip Anchor-style Derby win out of Serpentine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a colt who had begun his career with a 16-length 10th of 11 in a Galway maiden. Auguste Rodin, the “special” one as far as all closest to him are concerned, has to go and do it himself now with O'Brien summing it up this week. “The Derby is the race where all the horses come together and then you find out, that's the way it is every year,” he said.

Passing It Down; Is Frankel The New Derby Sire Sensation?

In one of the last Classic face-offs between Galileo and Frankel, the latter looks to have a distinct edge in his bid to cement his position as the next go-to sire in this great race. Galileo's unbeaten son Artistic Star (Ire) hails not from Ballydoyle but from the Ralph Beckett stable and is a big outsider with experience in short supply, while Juddmonte's great supplies Frankie's grand finale Arrest (Ire) and more intriguingly also a sleight of hand two years on from his first winner Adayar (Ire). Unexpectedly, that emphatic Derby hero's full-brother Military Order (Ire) comes here with perhaps stronger credentials having won the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial his 5-year-old sibling surrendered en route. When Arthur Budgett's Oaks runner-up Windmill Girl produced two Derby winners in Blakeney and Morston there was a thought that it might not happen again, such is the implausibility of such an outcome, but we are potentially here again.

The 1969 and 1973 winners were half-brothers, so Anna Salai (Dubawi {Ire}) will be providing the race and her breeding operation with something unique if it again plays out right for the boys in blue on Saturday. Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby said today he is happy with the draw allocated to Military Order as he bids to saddle his third Betfred Derby winner. “He is always going to be going there with the tag as being a Derby winner's full-brother, so everyone is going to ask the questions of 'is he as good?' and 'where does he stand compared to him?' but he looks as though he is physically potentially more there and mentally more there than Adayar at this stage of his career,” Charlie Appleby said. “Regardless of that, Adayar went and won a Derby and this lad has got to go and do it now.”

Prepare For The Ride

Richard Kingscote has the chance to emulate “King Kieren” Fallon, the last jockey to win back-to-back Derbys in 2003 and 2004, on Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) who carries Workforce-like vibes into this for the Niarchos Family so far denied a Derby triumph. Sir Michael Stoute's assistant James Savage was tellingly not averse to comparing the homebred with last year's winner. “Desert Crown and Passenger are different in many ways, but one thing they are similar in is that they are both clever horses that learnt very quickly,” he said. Like the 1993 hero Commander in Chief, he only appeared for the first time at Newmarket's Craven meeting, where King Power's The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) was running second in the signature race before their subsequent coming together in York's Dante.

An Instant Impression?

Surprisingly, given the intensely competitive nature of the Derby, both Geoff Wragg in 1983 and Roger Charlton in 1990 managed to win it in their first season training with Teenoso and Quest For Fame, respectively. Charlie Johnston is attempting the feat this time with a duo including the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero Dubai Mile (Ire) (Roaring Lion), who has the edge over the Chester Vase one-two Arrest and Adelaide River (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and very much over Auguste Rodin having finished 17 lengths ahead of that peer in the Guineas.

Sporting the colours of “Mr Derby” Ahmad Al Shaikh, whose outsiders Khalifa Sat (Ire) (Free Eagle {Ire}) and Hoo Ya Mal (GB) (Territories {Ire}) were second in 2020 and 2022, Dubai Mile's Derby success could well have been prophesied by his owner after greeting Hoo Ya Mal. “Next year!” he had said, so no pressure there then Charlie. “He looks great and it is all systems go,” the son of Middleham legend Mark, who fared no better than second in all his tries in the Derby. “The track as we know is a variable that will be an unknown until he has tackled it, but the trip is very much viewed as a positive.”

Click here to view the TDN's Derby Special Edition.

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Frankie’s Fillies Light Up Ladies’ Day

EPSOM DOWNS, UK–It was a chill wind, rather than an ill wind, that blew across the Downs as the early birds arrived at Epsom. The drive to Surrey had been peppered by racing popping up on the Radio 4 news, and that's rarely a good sign. Animal Rising may be chaotic in its reasoning but, with its threats of disruption, the protest group has done a good job of grabbing attention in the run-up to the Derby. Sure enough, there it was again, on repeat on the hourly bulletins.

The racecourse always comes as a bit of a surprise as suburbia gives way to the wide open space which, for almost 250 years, has held tightly its most prized asset. Those cambered bends of one of the world's most extraordinary racecourses are accompanied by a shining white grandstand resembling a cruise liner marooned on the turf. It's a startling sight on any day and by Friday morning it was encased by barricades: Fortress Epsom standing ready to repel those whose sole intent wasn't simply to enjoy a bloody good day at the races.

On cue, the sun emerged mid-morning to aid tens of thousands of racegoers in that pursuit. Eve Johnson Houghton and Anthony Bromley know how to unearth a value buy at the yearling sales and, after Chipotle (GB) and Streets Of Gold (Ire), the stable has another precocious youngster to take them and the members of the Woodway 20 syndicate to more big days out. Bobsleigh (Ire) (Elzaaam {Aus}) shot down the straight to win the Woodcote like he was on the Cresta Run. After tackling the weirdness of Brighton then Epsom with aplomb, Ascot will seem like a doddle.

This was Ladies' Day. In fact, it was Lady Bamford's day, and the only moment the smile slipped from the face of the diminutive owner-breeder of the Oaks winner Soul Sister (GB) was when Frankie Dettori tried to lift her off her feet and spin her round in the winner's circle.

For Lady Bamford it was a second Oaks success after Sariska (GB), for Dettori a seventh, the first of which came almost 30 years ago with Balanchine. Will he retire to bed tonight thinking 'what the hell was I doing announcing my retirement?' He won't be the only one questioning that decision, if indeed he is.

The indefatigable jockey had already given one masterclass aboard Emily Upjohn (GB) to win the G1 Dahlbury Coronation Cup, setting up the first half of a memorable Group 1 double for John and Thady Gosden. The runners-up of last year's Derby and Oaks went toe to toe down the hill for home, with the only certainty being that one of them would once again have to settle for second. Westover (GB) gave way, perhaps not graciously, to the powerhouse that is Emily Upjohn, now resplendent in the huge frame that once made her a backward-looking yearling deemed worth a bid that was half the price of her illustrious sire's covering fee. She's showing them now.

Last summer, an early morning July Course gallop for Emily Upjohn, and the sudden appearance of Dettori to ride her, was the first sign of a rapprochement between the jockey and John Gosden, a temporary parting of ways having ensued in the wake of a few irksome results at Royal Ascot. Whether it was that public chiding or merely his wish to go out on top that first prompted Dettori's thoughts of retirement, he will certainly be granted the latter. He already has two British Classics under his belt this season and, as his twin triumphs on those glorious fillies at Epsom show, he remains very much in his pomp as a rider.

He is still the public's darling, too, and boy does racing need a figure of such recognisable vibrance right now. “I'll have a few quid on Frankie,” said the lady on the paddock rail to her friend before the Coronation Cup. She wasn't the only one with thoughts of backing Frankie blind. By late afternoon on Friday, the plunge on Dettori's Gosden-trained Derby runner Arrest (Ire) had gathered pace to push him to the head of the market past Auguste Rodin (Ire). A Frankie-Frankel Oaks-Derby double would certainly help to propel racing to the front pages for all the right reasons, providing that's the only prominent Arrest at Epsom on Saturday.

There's a saying that goes 'show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser'. But when you own a share in a stallion who has contributed in a homebred filly running third in the Oaks, then you are entitled to feel pretty cock-a-hoop, as Steven Smith and Andy Lloyd of Hunscote Stud did by late afternoon. Their battler of a filly, Caernarfon (GB), had already belied her odds to run fourth in the 1,000 Guineas and now here she was again, challenging the favourite Savethelastdance (Ire) for second on the line in the biggest fillies' Classic of them all.

“Her sister was bulletproof, and she's bulletproof,” said Smith of Caernarfon and her Group 3-winning sibling Dan's Dream (GB), both daughters of Cityscape (GB).

“She's small, she's agile, she doesn't appear to need much work. She just didn't quite get the trip,” he added, before turning to the subject of a potential run in the marginally shorter Prix de Diane.

“A physical specimen she is not but, like all Cityscapes, she has a good mind and she tries. And if you have those two things in a racehorse you have a chance.”

A major share-holder in Cityscape, a former resident of Overbury Stud who is currently in Argentina, Smith is already musing the return of the Juddmonte-bred son of Selkirk.

“We found out today that she is a 10-furlong horse and we can crack on,” he said. “She goes on soft as well, so there are plenty of options. She floats. I have a video of her galloping and I draw a line and look at her eye and her eye doesn't move. Whatever is happening down below is very smooth and economical. She's like Seb Coe. Why did he win? Because of his action. She has an amazing action.”

The beaming owner-breeder then brought the conversation to a close with, “Right, I'm off to get hammered.” And with the uplifting thought that last year's Oaks third Nashwa (GB) went on to win the Prix de Diane, he has no need to drown any sorrows.

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Son Of Grey Lilas Debuts At Compiegne

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday's Observations features a son of Group 1 winner Grey Lilas (Ire) (Danehill).

13.55 Compiegne, Debutantes, €27,000, 3yo, c/g, 10fT
GREY LUX (IRE) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) is a son of the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp heroine Grey Lilas (Ire) (Danehill), whose best progeny to date was the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Prix d'Ispahan winner Golden Lilac (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Like those luminaries, Andre Fabre has charge of the Gestut Ammerland homebred who meets five peers at the track at which the trainer introduced his listed-winning half-brother Golden Guepard (Ire) (Hurricane Run (Ire).

14.25 Compiegne, Debutantes, €27,000, 3yo, f, 10fT
ART MYTHIQUE (IRE) (Australia {GB}) is another Andre Fabre blueblood introduced on the card, being Ballymore Thoroughbred Racing's daughter of the Wildensteins' luminary Aquarelliste (Fr) (Danehill). The triple Group 1-winning Prix de Diane heroine has already produced the G1 Prix Jean Romanet runner-up Ame Bleue (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and listed scorer Any Time Soon (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) and this May-foaled chestnut has time to add to the family's achievements, as does The Aga Khan's Ashalyka (Fr) (Dariyan {Fr}), a daughter of the dual Group 2 scorer Ashalanda (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}).

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Epsom: Can Soul Sister Be Frankie’s Last Dance?

It still seems hard to imagine, given how long he has been omnipresent in British racing, but Friday's G1 Betfred Oaks will mark the penultimate Epsom Classic experience in the saddle for Frankie Dettori. It may also prove his best chance of going out in a blaze of glory, as Soul Sister (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) looks the more likely of his Friday and Saturday mounts to conjure that soon-to-be-missed flying dismount. Carrying the “Sariska” silks of Lady Bamford, the homebred left no one in any doubt that she is a top-class prospect when making a mockery of inflated odds in York's G3 Musidora S. last month.

“I was impressed because the filly quickened nicely and clocked a good time,” he said. I hope the trip won't be a problem, all the signs are good. She settled well and she finished the race strongly at York, so I believe that it will not be an issue. You don't really know until you try, but I think she will be fine.”

The Lion's Share

While Frankie prepares to bid farewell, Oisin Murphy is hoping his career can enjoy the same longevity and as far as the Oaks is concerned it is time to catch up with the outgoing legend on six wins in this Classic. David Howden's Running Lion (GB) (Roaring Lion) is taking the Ouija Board (GB) and Taghrooda (GB) route to this Classic, having won Newmarket's Listed Pretty Polly S. with a deal of authority. As nine of the last 10 renewals have gone to either Aidan O'Brien or John Gosden, she is at least from the right stable and if she has the stamina for this will be a danger to all.

Grounds For Concern

While Aidan O'Brien is convinced that Savethelastdance (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is not a soft-ground specialist, the Listed Cheshire Oaks winner has to prove she can reproduce the same kind of performance on the liveliest surface she has encountered to date on a track that will test her versatility to the full. Both the Gosdens' runners have no flaws in that respect, so Ryan Moore will have to make sure he is not as far adrift early as he was at Chester. Those with bigger uncertainty hovering over them include Godolphin's Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Eternal Hope (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), who despite her obvious talent has yet to race on turf, and a clutch of unproven stayers. They include the Hunscote Stud colourbearer Caernarfon (GB) (Cityscape {GB}), surprisingly the only member of the cast to bring 1000 Guineas form into the mix having been fourth in the Newmarket Classic. “We will be taking on well-touted fillies who have done very well in their Oaks trials, but they have got to step up in class and we've already been and proven that we can mix it at that sort of level,” trainer Jack Channon said. “We just hope that the extra distance will elevate her a couple of places.”

Westover Primed For Epsom Return

Few would not concede that with a clear run Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}) would have been at least second in last year's Derby and probably would have shaken up the winner, so his reappearance on the famous Surrey Downs is to be welcomed in Friday's G1 DahlBury Coronation Cup. Juddmonte's homebred went on to show what he could do in the G1 Irish Derby before a mix of over-exuberance and the effects of a busy schedule took their toll in the King George, as they did for that race's other flop Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) who joins him again. As well as showcasing his own talent here, the Ralph Beckett-trained 4-year-old also puts the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic success of Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) back into focus.

“It was a big run in Dubai, he likes good ground, we know that now,” Juddmonte's European racing manager Barry Mahon said. “He's a big horse with a knee action and we thought he'd go on softer ground, but I think the Arc showed us he can go on it fine but he's better on fast ground, so hopefully we get that and he can run a big race.”

Tunnes Of Ability

Coronation Cups have been won by overseas raiders several times before and following the exploits of his half-brother Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}), Holger Renz's Tunnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}) is not one to be taken lightly. His 10-length victory in the G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern in November stands up to inspection and trainer Peter Schiergen is hoping this will lead to the Ascot feature in July in which his half-sibling was second. “If he runs well, we might plan to run him in the King George,” he said.

Big Sigh Of Relief

Thursday saw a final field of 11 declared for Sunday's €1.5-million G1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly, with good news for connections of likely favourite Big Rock (Fr) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) as Yeguada Centurion's homebred sensation was drawn in two. Jaber Abdullah's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) is in four, while TDN Rising Star and supplementary entry Feed The Flame (GB) (Kingman {GB}) has been allocated stall six.

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