Epsom Derby is the original, but sadly it is not the best any more

Irish Times

a day ago

The Epsom Derby is the original. But sad to say it's not the best any more. When it comes to mile-and-a-half Derby races on grass, the most commercially relevant of them all is already done and dusted for this year.
Last Sunday's Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby, was won by Croix Du Nord. A champion two-year-old, Croix Du Nord won what is unquestionably Japanese racing's most coveted prize.
【🇯🇵 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) (G1), Tokyo, 2400m, 3yo No Geldings, approx US$ 4.61m】
Winner: Croix du Nord(JPN)
J: Yuichi Kitamura
T: Takashi Saito
Sire: Kitasan Black
Dam: Rising Cross
— JRA World Racing (@JRA_WorldRacing)
Post-race euphoria underlined the prevailing sentiment of this being the pinnacle of the sport in what is perhaps the strongest and most vibrant racing nation of all. The same kind of comments will be dutifully trotted out after Saturday's Derby at Epsom. They'll sound rote in comparison.
The Epsom Derby is trading on past glories. The currency of Federico Tesio's line about the thoroughbred existing because of the Epsom winning post has faded in the face of modern commercial bloodstock realities. In stark, bottom-line terms, winning the Derby has become a double-edged sword. Its prestige is rooted in tradition, but where's the future in that?
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As Saturday is the 246th Derby there's probably little surprise about it looking a bit tired. The crowd for the Tokyo classic was capped at 80,000. About 25,000 will be in Epsom, far removed from historic tales of London decamping to the Hill for the day. The Tokyo Yushun was worth almost €4 million in prize money, more than double its English counterpart.
But it is the discrepancy between the two Derby prizes in terms of their primary purposes that is stark. Champions still win at Epsom. City Of Troy a year ago was the best of his generation. A decade ago, Golden Horn proved himself an outstanding racehorse. But in the identification of potential top stallions, Blue Riband glory at Epsom is all but a black mark.
Proven mile-and-a-half ability is prized in Japan's racing and breeding industries. The class to carry speed over a distance is the ultimate. The 2023 world champion Equinox is a prime example. Croix Du Nord is all but priceless now, his status as an elite stallion prospect assured. The commercial imperative around tomorrow's winner will be very different.
Almost inevitably the first instinct for those involved in any Epsom Derby winner is to prove the horse is just as good, if not better, at a shorter trip. A mile-and-a-half has become associated with stamina and that's a financial mood killer in the breeding shed.
Adam Kirby riding Adayar home in 2021 to win the Derby at Epsom. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty
The 2021 Derby winner Adayar was so commercially dubious in Europe he was immediately packed off to stud in Japan. It was a well-trodden route in the past when Japan's industry was growing. Now the Japanese are mostly fine with their own produce.
Serpentine the year before ended up gelded, the first Derby winner in a century to face such a fate. Anthony Van Dyck (2019) wound up being fatally injured in the Melbourne Cup. Last year, Darley moved its 2018 hero Masar to a National Hunt stud in Ireland.
The vastly less lucrative business of serving jumps mares is also what Wings Of Eagles (2017), Harzand (2016) and Golden Horn are now doing. In the stallion business, middle-distance talent too often turns into sales-ring poison. The last Epsom Derby hero to prove himself a proper top-notch stallion on the flat is Camelot (2012).
The instinct for many is to blame Coolmore Stud's commercial instincts for such a situation. The Irish-based operation does exert a massive hold on the global bloodstock game. But it ignores how
John Magnier's
support for the Derby has been crucial over the last two decades. Without it, the race's relevance would be on an even slippier slope than it is.
That Coolmore's prepotent sire Galileo was a proper mile-and-half racehorse in his day seems to have gone over a lot of heads. So, too, does the impact of so much breeding for what often turns out to be cheap speed. The nature of the programme that made Europe the focal point for turf racing worldwide has been undermined.
Looking back at Golden Horn's post-Epsom racing career, his trainer John Gosden said recently: 'Of course what do we all do now; we have to go straight to the Eclipse to prove they're not mile-and-a-half horses. And yet the Japanese, they don't mind. Deep Impact ran over two miles. What is this speed, speed, speed with us? We're getting worse than the Americans.'
Deep Impact, Japan's most famous racehorse, won the Tokyo Yushun 20 years ago on route to Triple Crown glory. It included Japan's St Leger over almost two miles. In 2020 his son Contrail did the same. It underlines how skewed middle-distance priorities are here; perhaps also how it's no coincidence about the best in Japan increasingly being the best in the world.
It's 20 years, too, since the French Derby was dropped in distance to reflect modern European breeding realities. Last Sunday, hours after Croix Du Nord,
Aidan O'Brien
won it with Camille Pissarro. He said afterwards: 'It's a very important race, and it makes him a very important horse.' Chantilly is a long way from Tokyo. But the prevailing Derby sentiment was similar.
A similar narrative will be dutifully spun about tomorrow's Derby. But those words will sound hollow. Short-sighted attitudes to middle distance breeding are having their long-term impact. The odds are the mile and a half Derby winner that will be instrumental in developing a sport's flourishing future is tucked up in his box 10,000 kms away from Epsom.
Somethin
g
for the Weekend
It will be the biggest Derby field since 2003 which reflects how open it looks.
DAMYSUS
(3.30) was at the back of a slowly run Dante and did well to finish second to Pride Of Arras. He looked inexperienced at York, but was the last one off the bridle. Reported progress since can see him in the mix.
Gavin Cromwell sends
FIERY LUCY
(3.10) for Listed contest in Musselburgh on Saturday and the three-year-old can progress for her comeback run at Leopardstown to beat last year's winner, Jabaara.