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Coolmore banks on Delacroix at Epsom
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." manyan@
Metro
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review - a classic JRPG made in France
One of the best Japanese role-players of recent years is actually French and it also has one of the most enjoyable battle systems the genre has ever seen. When it comes to the term Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) we've always been of the opinion that it describes a subgenre of games, rather than being an indication of where a title was made. Not everyone agrees but it's undeniable that there are many games which, in terms of gameplay and structure, are functionally identical to Japanese-made titles, from obvious homages like Sea Of Stars to Ubisoft's South Park games. In that sense, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is clearly a JRPG – in terms of the style of its exploration, its turn-based combat, and its general structure – except that it's been made by French indie studio Sandfall Interactive. Although, even more so than this week's Steel Seed, calling a game as ambitious and graphically resplendent as Clair Obscur an indie title does it a disservice. The team has openly acknowledged their love for Final Fantasy 7 in particular, but the game goes well beyond mere homage to create something that not only feels unique but is one of the most thoughtful and enjoyable JRPGs of the modern era. The story of Clair Obscur (the name is French for the Italian term chiaroscuro , which refers to strong contrasts between light and dark in a painting) involves a god-like being called the Paintress, who every year draws a number on a giant monolith and everyone above that age instantly gets snapped away like she was Thanos – except with showers of flower petals instead of ash. Nobody knows her motivations, but the numbers are getting smaller each time and at the start of the game number 33 is about to be painted. Main player character, Gustave, is 33 but his former lover is 34. The plot may sound rather silly when you just read about it, but within the opening minutes the game's serious tone immediately draws you into the story. It quickly becomes obvious that the set-up is a metaphor for the inevitability of loss in general and a meditation on the legacy we leave behind, in terms of both family and art. The survivors of the Paintress all live on an island that is a fractured version of Paris, complete with an unnaturally mangled Eiffel Tower and which, like Lies Of P before it, revels in its Belle Époque style architecture and fashion. The thrust of the story involves the titular expedition across the sea, onto the mainland; one that has been attempted many times before by other groups, in an effort to find a way to stop the Paintress, but which has always ended in failure. This introduces another of the game's main themes, with the idea of building upon on the efforts and sacrifices of your predecessors. This works on a meta level too, as the exploration is where the similarities to late 90s Japanese role-players is most evident. Exploring a map of the wider world with a giant-sized avatar of your party leader is like something right out of a mid-era Final Fantasy game, as are the various mini-game distractions and some of the wackier enemy designs. Clair Obscur is purposefully whimsical at times but there's real depth to the role-playing systems, in terms of the complex skill trees and items called Pictos, which can buff your stats, change status effects, and more. Although the menu for organising them is a bit of a mess, which can also be true of some of the other interface elements. The combat is turn-based but there's a strong action element inspired by Paper Mario and others, where you not only have to augment attack and defence with button presses at the right moment but also dodge, counter, and parry. Clair Obscur goes well beyond any other game with a similar system, with the different enemies and their tells and faints requiring serious action skills to deal with. Dodging is relatively easy, no matter your skill level, but you don't get any bonuses for that and so it's best to try and counter if you can. However, more dangerous enemies have attacks that can't be parried, which becomes reminiscent of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, of all things. It's nowhere near that hard though and if you're struggling there are multiple difficulty levels and settings to adjust. Each party member has very distinctive skills, from Gustave's self-explanatory Overcharge ability and Lune's elemental magic, to Maelle making use of different stances and one character that is basically a homage to Dante from Devil May Cry. Each party member can team-up with each other in interesting ways too, creating long chains of attacks, which becomes vital in the many excellent boss battles. These are the very opposite of bullet sponges, as each has to be taken down in a very specific way, requiring multiple different tactics at different times – highlighting what is one of the most enjoyably versatile battle systems seen for a long time. The bosses also look great, and while the technical aspects aren't quite as good as the art design (the facial animation can look a bit odd at times) it's a beautiful looking game that feels very French in terms of its influences and atmospheres, and therefore quite different to the role-playing norm. The soundtrack is excellent too, and while the amount of accordion music borders on parody at times that is something the game is clearly doing on purpose. From the infeasible number of berets to one of the main characters wearing a black and white stripped shirt with a cravat, the game revels in its French-ness. It has a clear sense of humour about it though and in world where big budget games usually have their cultural identity shaved off before they even start that's very appealing. We're not sure where Sandfall got the budget for all this, but the voice cast includes Charlie Cox (Marvel's Daredevil), Andy Serkis, and the increasingly ubiquitous Ben Starr. The high production levels are reflected in the price, which is well above the norm for an indie game, but we really hope that doesn't put anyone off. More Trending The game can seem pretentious and melodramatic at times, but then it's always difficult to try and broach serious subject while also fighting monsters and trying to keep the mood at least relatively light. Given the slow-paced start to the game, we were worried it was going to be self-indulgent in terms of overlong cut scenes and endless exposition, but it's not. The only real problems are the overly linear dungeons, that are still fun because of the combat but could have offered up some more interesting exploration. The dialogue is a bit awkward at times too, presumably because it's been translated from the original French, and the story can seem a bit contrived at times, in the efforts it goes to in order to hide what's going on, but these are minor issues. The game is a brisk 30 or 40 hours, around half of what you'd expect from most JRPGs, but that's not because of a lack of content but a lack of filler, and the experience is all the better for it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is easily one of the best JRPGs of the last decade, with a near perfect mix of old and new influences. It's beautiful, it's fun, and it has something to say. Plus, it's a new IP from an indie developer that has never made anything else before – and you can't ask for much more than that. In Short: An extraordinary debut release from a French indie studio that has managed to make the best JRPG of recent years, with some of the best combat the genre has ever seen. Pros: Fantastic combat system that blends multiple different influences to expert effect. Intriguing storytelling that explores real world subjects in a fantasy setting. Great art design and soundtrack. Cons: Dungeons can be a little tedious and overly linear. Some of the dialogue is a bit awkward and there's a few minor menu issues. Score: 9/10 Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: £44.99Publisher: Kepler InteractiveDeveloper: Sandfall InteractiveRelease Date: 24th April 2025 Age Rating: 18 Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. 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