Coolmore banks on Delacroix at Epsom

New Paper

2 days ago

Top jockey Ryan Moore took a long time to pick his Epsom Derby ride, but the "winning form is good form" adage must have tipped the scales towards Delacroix.
Coolmore's champion rider is given first refusal at the behemoth operation.
When The Lion In Winter won convincingly as a two-year-old in the Group 3 Acomb Stakes (1,400m) at York on Aug 21, 2024, Moore thought he had his conveyance towards a fifth Derby win.
But the Sea Of Stars colt was a beaten short-priced favourite at his racing comeback in the Group 2 Dante Stakes (2,112m) at the same York track on May 15.
Round the same time, another rising star who had been waiting in the wings for the Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle team won two races in a row in Ireland - Delacroix.
Moore was aboard the Dubawi colt at the first, in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes (2,000m) in Leopardstown, Ireland on May 11 while it was Wayne Lordan in the driving seat at his impressive Derby Trial win over the same course and distance six weeks later.
When both Delacroix and The Lion In Winter were entered in the £1.5 million (S$2.6 million) Group 1 Epsom Derby (2,400m) on June 7 (10.30pm Singapore time), alongside Ballysax runner-up Lambourn, punters had already made up their minds.
Delcroix had displaced The Lion In Winter as the flavour of the month, and was installed as the new 3-1 favourite while The Lion Of Winter had drifted to 9-1 for a Derby paying homage this year to late racing mogul, the Aga Khan.
However, the riders for O'Brien's duo were still left blank until declaration time on June 4, presumably with Moore still in a quandary.
But, the four-time World's Best Jockey eventually jumped on the Delacroix bandwagon, too, while Colin Keane, who recently proved an astute replacement for the Gosdens on Field Of Gold in the Irish Guineas, will team up with The Lion In Winter for the first time.
Having given his No. 1 jockey carte blanche, O'Brien respected his choice, but said it could have gone either way, adamant that The Lion In Winter had legitimate excuses in the Dante.
"The Dante was delayed. It's the kind of trial we thought we could run The Lion In Winter in," said the Irish master trainer.
"He ran in York before, it was a flat track. We thought it was going to suit him, we knew there was going to be drastic improvement from it, literally.
"It's only in the last 10 days that he's gone back into full work for the year. That's how far back he was."
The York feature hatched a surprise winner in Pride Of Arras, who is also among the 19 Derby runners, but O'Brien believes his ward could have finished closer.
"We thought if he didn't get chopped in the straight, he still might have finished third under a not too hard ride from Ryan," said O'Brien.
"Sometimes, you're better for a child to go wrong and not win than everything go right and win because you can't improve after that.
"So, all the things with his fitness, the way the race was run, the freshness and doing the extra work, all these could bring him forward drastically from York."
O'Brien, who is looking for a record-extending 11th Derby success, would not split his horses, but could understand why Moore jumped ship.
"It was very hard for Ryan to get off Delacroix. His two trials were both impressive and bold," he said.
"They have been good trials for us for a horse coming from Ireland.
"We always viewed him as a Derby horse last year. He got a mile well last year, we thought he'd know how to get a mile and a quarter, and it looks that way now.
"His two trials were run more slowly than we would have liked. We would've maybe seen a little bit more, but he can't do more.
"He relaxed and quickened and won both of them very easily."
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