The atmosphere was more nervous than excited, Tattenham Corner train station was shuttered and the famous Hill was half-empty at best as this lunchtime Derby got under way. But there was a welcome air of familiarity about the winning trainer as Auguste Rodin crossed the line two and a half minutes later, extending Aidan O’Brien’s record to nine successes in all while also giving the Coolmore syndicate which backs his stable a 10th Derby win.
That total too is an all-time record across the Derby’s 243-year history, and both marks will, in all likelihood, be further extended in the years ahead. Galileo, Coolmore’s uber-stallion over the last two decades, died in July 2021, but the Stud retains its gift for both breeding and buying potential Classic winners, as Auguste Rodin’s victory proved.
O’Brien’s latest Derby winner is from the final crop of the late Japanese stallion Deep Impact, who is most fondly remembered in Europe for the extraordinary afternoon at Longchamp racecourse in 2006 when his attempt to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe drew tens of thousands of Japanese racing fans to the Bois de Boulogne.
His dam, meanwhile, is Rhododendron, a daughter of Galileo who was sent to Japan to be bred with Deep Impact in the spring of 2019. And four years later, their colt foal who was born six months after the stallion’s death in July 2019 ran down King Of Steel inside the final furlong at Epsom to book his own high-profile spot in Coolmore’s future band of stallions.
There was a brief moment, two furlongs out, when it seemed that King Of Steel, a 66-1 outsider, had slipped the field and was about to become one of the most unfancied Derby winners in history. Ryan Moore, though, had ridden a patient and well-judged race on Auguste Rodin, the 9-2 second-favourite, and came with a winning run that got him into the lead around 100m from the line.
White Birch, who was nearly six lengths behind King Of Steel, followed them home, with Sprewell another one-and-three-quarters away in fourth. Arrest, Frankie Dettori’s final Derby mount and the 4-1 favourite, weakened from two out to finish 10th having lost a shoe earlier in the race.
“From the very start, when John [Magnier] and Sue and everyone decided to send Rhododendron to Japan, a maiden mare, to send all the way to Japan to be covered by Deep Impact, it was an unbelievable call,” O’Brien said.
“And then when she was scanned in-foal with a colt, and then all the hype of expectations were there straightaway from before he was born. He was measured, measured, measured all the way, and he was ticking the top of the measurements all the way.
“It’s difficult for a person or a horse to handle all that, and he did, all the way through before he came to Ballydoyle. I remember Ryan sitting on him in the February [2022] as a two-year-old, and saying, ‘This is very special’. And then the bar is even higher. He did a lovely run first time and won his next three, and then he was put away and the plan was for the Guineas.”
O’Brien spoke about Auguste Rodin as a potential Triple Crown winner before the 2,000 Guineas in May, and there must have been a slight sense of what might have been after his success on Saturday as his colt did not get a chance to show his true form at Newmarket.
“It was one of those days,” O’Brien said. “The lads [at Coolmore] had the plan he’d do the three [Triple Crown] races and we knew the first one would be the toughest, as everything would have to fall right for him.
“Everything just went wrong but he came out the race great. Every day we were riding him up, he was getting better and more confident and Ryan was so cool. He knew the pressure was on so he gave him such a peach of a ride.”
The Irish Derby at the Curragh on 2 July is the next obvious target for Auguste Rodin, although O’Brien also feels that the colt’s relaxed nature will make him an easy horse to travel with as the year goes on.
“He will have the Curragh option next, but the lads make those decisions,” O’Brien said.
“[And] I’d say he’d have international options. This horse is going to love travelling and he’s a pure mile-and-a-quarter, mile-and-a-half horse. The Guineas would have been fine if everything had gone right for him but it might be a blessing in disguise, because if he did, we’d be waiting on the Leger and he’s free of all that now, free of all the shackles, so the lads can do whatever they want for him.”
Nottingham
2.15 Jasour 2.45 One Night Thunder 3.15 Mogwai 3.45 Point Lynas (nap) 4.15 Brabusach 4.45 Reach 5.15 Enchanged Night
Fakenham
2.30 Mystic Man 3.00 Pollypockett 3.30 Arbennig 4.00 State Of Bliss 4.30 Hatcher (nb) 5.00 Lipa K 5.30 If Karl’s Berg Did
Auguste Rodin was the Derby favourite throughout the winter after his victory in the Vertem Trophy at Doncaster last autumn, and still set off as the second-choice in the betting on Saturday despite his Guineas disappointment.
His fans have plenty of money to follow him with, in other words, and may feel that the 6-1 currently on offer for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is a price that is unlikely to grow significantly between now and the first weekend in October. Whichever way his career develops from here, however, the most important race of his life is already in the form book.
