No real standouts in French Derby
The last horse to come out of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and win the Prix du Jockey Club was the Aidan O’Brien-trained St Mark’s Basilica in 2021, O’Brien’s lone victory in the French Derby. But the O’Brien-trained Camille Pissarro, who last raced in the one-mile Poulains and rates among the favorites Sunday for the 1 5/16-mile Prix du Jockey Club is no St Mark’s Basilica.
St Mark’s Basilica at 2 won the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in England, the pre-eminent European 2-year-old contest, while Camille Pissarro shipped to France last fall, albeit coming home a winner in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. St Mark’s Basilica returned at age 3 and won the Poulains, while Camille Pissarro’s first race this year yielded a lukewarm second in a listed Irish stakes before he checked in a modestly closing third in the Poulains.
In other words, Camille Pissarro might have name recognition but rates no better chance than several others in what looks like an open renewal of the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly.
The race attracted 18 entrants, and Nitoi, a plausible contender, took the worst of the post-position draw, marooned in the far outside stall. Trainer Andre Fabre won his first Jockey Club in 1997 with Peintre Celebre and his fourth and most recent in 2015 with New Bay. He brings Nitoi, a Wertheimer et Frere homebred by Siyouni, into Sunday’s contest after one quiet run at age 2 and a pair of starts this year. The last of them produced a win in the Prix de Suresnes over 1 1/4 miles at Chantilly, the same race in which the great Ace Impact prepped for his 2023 Jockey Club victory.
Fabre and the Wertheimers entered Sineleo, a winner of his debut just a couple weeks ago, while Fabre also has the Godolphin colt Cualificar, first in his three starts this year. Caulificar has a measure of pace and has improved race by race, beating Jockey Club entrant Azimpour by a narrow margin before handing a stronger Jockey Club hope, Al Aali, a more definitive defeat last month at Chantilly.
The Juddmonte homebred Detail, an outpaced sixth in the Poulains, stretches out to what ought to prove a more favorable distance, and co-trainers John and Thady Gosden seem relatively confident of improvement.
But Ridari’s the colt to take out of the Poulains. An Aga Khan homebred trained by Mikel Delzangles, Ridari is by Churchill, whose offspring’s average winning distance is just less than 1 1/4 miles, and out of Ridasiyna, winner of the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera over 1 1/4 miles. Ridari has yet to race farther than one mile, had two solid runs at age 2, returned a far faster horse this year, and eked out a win in the Prix Fontainebleau before finishing fourth in the Poulains. Ridari would have been third last time had his jockey not tried and failed to split the top two finishers in deep stretch, and on Sunday, over a distance he should relish, Ridari can be first.
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