Brian O'Connor: If classic weekend doesn’t float your boat it’s time to jump off the good ship Gee-Gee because this is as good as it gets
If classic weekend doesn’t float your boat it’s time to jump off the good ship Gee-Gee because it doesn’t get betterEpsom Derby day: should Aidan O’Brien secure a 10th success he will eclipse Lester Piggott as the Derby’s most successful trainer or jockey. Photograph: Allsport
It will be the 245th Derby tomorrow. The rather lordly verdict by the great Italian Federico Tesio about the thoroughbred existing only because of the Derby winning post has weathered a bit over time but isn’t fit for the chipper yet. The Oaks is even older than the Derby, first run in 1779. In comparison, the Jockey Club, the French Derby, is a mere pup at 188 years old.
The bucolic paradise of Chantilly to the north of Paris is a much more regulation examination but with its own distinctive architectural folly. The magnificent Great Stables that dominate the panorama were built in the early 18th century by the Prince of Bourbon-Conde who believed in reincarnation and hoped to come back as a horse. His reluctance to rough it no matter what the circumstances helped produce an incomparable sporting backdrop.
Shamardal, Lope De Vega and New Bay promise to be major influences on the breed for years to come. There’s a lot of Coolmore investment bound up in Aidan O’Brien’s 2021 winner, St Mark’s Basilica, following in their footsteps. In comparison, success over Epsom’s mile and a half has sadly become almost a black mark in elite commercial breeding terms.
It’s ironic then that the outstanding sire of this and perhaps any generation, Galileo, was a mile-and-a-half horse through and through, never as impressive as in his 2001 Derby romp around Epsom. He was a son of Sadlers Wells, himself a runner-up in an outstanding French Derby 40 years ago.
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