Winner takes it all: Pride of Arras channels spirit of 70s for the Derby

The Guardian

19 hours ago

Lord Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury, who flipped a coin in 1779 to decide whose name would be attached to a new race at Epsom, would still recognise the Derby's switchback route around the Surrey downs if they could somehow be spirited along for the latest renewal of the Classic on Saturday. While so much else has changed at Epsom since Bunbury's colt, Diomed, was the first winner nearly a quarter of a millennium ago, they would see a kindred spirit in Vimy Aykroyd, the owner of Pride Of Arras, one of the favourites to be the 246th.
Enthusiastic owner-breeders, mating the best with the best and then hoping for the best, were the bedrock of thoroughbred racing from its earliest days. For the first 200 years of Classics at Epsom, the typical winners were three-year-olds that had been bred and raced by owners with a lifelong passion for both sides of the game. Breeding a Derby winner was as much of an achievement, if not more so, than having it race in your colours.
The old way of doing things was swept aside by new money and sovereign wealth from the end of the 1970s as owners such as Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai and his three brothers compiled huge strings of horses and other major players were forced to compete. The small-scale owner-breeder, driven by the dream of striking it lucky at Epsom in early June, was suddenly an endangered species and as the big-money operations – Godolphin and Ireland's Coolmore Stud in particular – dominated the Derby, it even seemed possible that they might be extinct.
As a result, there is a distinct sense of a 70s revival about the sudden emergence of Pride Of Arras as a leading contender. He raced once as a two-year-old, winning a minor race at Sandown in mid-August, and was an 18-1 outsider – and a 66-1 chance for the Derby – when he cantered to post for the Dante Stakes at York last month. One brisk dispatch of a useful field later he was down to 5-1 for Epsom.
Aykroyd, who bred Pride Of Arras with her husband, David, has four broodmares at her base in Yorkshire, including Parnell's Dream, a mare who was also born and raised there and raced in her colours. She produced Pride Of Arras, her fourth foal, in 2022 after a mating with New Bay. While the first three were all winners, her latest ticket in the genetic lottery of thoroughbred breeding is a potential jackpot.
Pride Of Arras's two-and-a-half minute run for glory is the result of many years of planning, patience and enthusiastic optimism. 'We bought his grand-dam, Kitty O'Shea, privately from Coolmore, and she had several foals and we kept Parnell's Dream,' Aykroyd says. 'She's bred quite a few winners already but nothing of his calibre and we're just incredibly lucky to have bred a horse with enormous potential.'
Kitty O'Shea, a daughter of the great stallion Sadler's Wells, was sourced for the Aykroyds by the bloodstock agent Patrick Cooper, David Aykroyd's nephew, who has already been involved with an Epsom Classic winner in Snow Fairy, who took the Oaks in 2010.
'It's down to a lot of patience and a lot of luck,' Cooper says. 'When the Aykroyds wanted to set up a small breeding operation, it was with the intention of breeding mile-and-a-half horses and to try to win the Oaks was the plan, but of course, we'd settle for the Derby. We bought two mares privately and neither was a great success, but the daughter of one of them has become a great success, so it's been 15 years in the making.'
Ralph Beckett was an obvious choice to train Pride Of Arras, as the Aykroyds have had horses in the yard since he set up as a trainer nearly a quarter of a century ago. 'I was brought up with Ralph's father as a child, so I've known the family for years and when he started, I decided to have a horse with him. It's gone on ever since,' she says.
'I'm very lucky to have a very good trainer and I'm a bit what will be, will be [about Saturday's race]. I've been in racing since I was born so I've seen all the ups and downs and I'm just very excited about it all.'
Epsom 1.00 Sirona 1.35 Docklands 2.10 Ruby's Profit 2.45 Tees Spirit (nap) 3.30 Pride Of Arras (nb) 4.15 Small Fry 5.00 Meblesh 5.40 Circe
Musselburgh 1.20 Blackcurrent 1.55 Code Purple 2.30 Alaskan Light 3.10 Jabaara 3.50 Regalian 4.25 Luna A Inbhir Nis 4.55 Top Gun Tina
Worcester 1.50 Greenrock Abbey 2.25 Somespring Special 3.05 Leading Force 3.45 Son Of Tyran 4.20 Romany Brown 4.50 Madajovy 5.25 I'm A Starman 5.55 Dollymount
Chepstow 5.30 Level Up 6.00 Wateen 6.30 High On Hope 7.00 Ultramarine 7.30 Marisitta 8.00 Eye Of The Water 8.30 You Are Everything 9.00
Doncaster 4.00 Raft Up 4.35 Papa Don't Preach 5.10 Court Of Stars 5.45 Equity Law 6.15 Way Of Stars 6.45 Remmooz 7.15 Superposition 7.50 La Cadalora
Hexham 4.05 Present Fair 4.40 Carnet De Stage 5.15 Sean Og 5.50 Mancero 6.20 The Navigator 6.50 Kilmore Rock
Lingfield 5.34 Motabaah 6.07 Spirit Of Albion 6.37 Salamanca City 7.07 Momaer 7.40 Fulford Cross 8.10 Amathus 8.40 Queen Of Good News
There is an Abba tribute band on the schedule for Epsom's popular music nights later in the year and the back-to-the-70s theme could be a winner on Saturday as well although Aykroyd will not get carried away. 'I don't think ahead [from the Derby],' she says. One step at a time, you can get carried away by thinking ahead and then you get disappointed. I can't see the point of that.'
The Derby looks as open as any running this century, with three horses vying for favouritism on Friday afternoon. The strong possibility of rain on Saturday adds a further layer of uncertainty as 19 lightly raced colts – the biggest field for 22 years – prepare for their one and only chance to win the sport's most famous Classic.
It is a race with obvious potential for an upset, all the more so if significant rain gets into the ground, when even an 80-1 shot such as Lazy Griff, the Chester Vase runner-up, might suddenly become an each-way proposition. It is a contest where at least two of the three market leaders have significant questions to answer.
On the face of it, Delacroix, the Leopardstown trial winner, has plenty to recommend him. He quickened well in his trial, is the chosen ride of Ryan Moore, Aidan O'Brien's stable jockey, from three possibles. Unlike Ruling Court, the 2,000 Guineas winner, it is fair to expect him to get the trip, even if it may not bring much improvement in a colt who is seven races into his career.
On the minus side, his last race had little depth, the runner-up has been steered around Epsom and Moore seemed unsure about his ride until late in the day. The view at Ballydoyle seemed to be that The Lion In Winter was their prime contender until his defeat behind Pride Of Arras in the Dante at York, which suggests in turn that the Dante may have been the strongest of the trials.
If so, then Damysus, the runner-up, and Nightwalker, who ran on well into fifth from some way off the pace, deserve to enter the conversation, but there is no compelling reason why either colt – with three and five starts respectively – should improve past the twice-raced winner.
Pride Of Arras has more scope for progress than any of the beaten horses at York. He is the son of a strong-staying mare with few concerns about stamina and is expected to handle the conditions if the going turns soft. His stable companion, Stanhope Gardens, and the unbeaten French challenger Midak could be significant threats, but at around 9-2, Pride Of Arras (3.30) can emerge from the pack as the 246th winner of the Derby.
Epsom 1.00: David Menuisier's Sirona had decent form on an easy surface last autumn and Ryan Moore, who was aboard for her sole win in 2024 in a Listed race at Newmarket, is back in her saddle.
Epsom 1.35: The versatile Docklands has not added a win to his record since the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot two years ago, but he has been impressively consistent much better company. Sardinian Warrior, who beat him by half a length at Ascot last time, was a length away from a Group One win next time and Harry Eustace's five-year-old faces nothing of that standard here.
Epsom 2.10: The high numbers are generally favoured on the straight course when there is ease in the ground and the front-running Ruby's Profit, who made all to win well at Goodwood last time, has a perfect pitch in stall 19.
Epsom 2.45: Tees Spirit landed this speed test three years ago, goes on any ground and has a fine draw in stall 16 as he bids for a repeat.