Finding the gain: The shorter the Derby, the more commercial the appeal?

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

It's a vicious cycle; low prices at the yearling sales for staying-bred horses drive breeders away. With less horses bred for the Classic races, the fields see a drop in size, quality, and previous performance, which sends owners overseas in search of a superior, ready-made product.

“You win a Derby and you get condemned in the marketplace, but win at Epsom or Kentucky and it’s celebrated,” Gooree Park’s Andrew Baddock told TTR recently after G1 Victoria Derby winner Prized Icon rejoined the roster. “It makes no sense. Winning a Derby in Australia pays a price commercially.”

If our systems aren’t valuing locally-bred stayers enough, perhaps adjusting the distance of the 3-year-old Classic races could make them more appealing to breeders and owners. It might be a case of getting our foot in the door.

The French connection

We can look to France for an example of where this principle has worked before.

The G1 Prix du Jockey Club, otherwise known as the French Derby, shortened from 2400 metres to 2100 metres in 2005, an idea initially proposed by then President of France-Galop Édouard de Rothschild and writ into the racing calendar after a particularly weak edition in 2004.

Astute Bloodstock’s Louis Le Metayer singled out France’s multiple Champion Trainer André Fabre as a driving force behind the shortening of the race.

“He convinced de Rothschild,” Le Metayer said. “It was his view that the French Derby was too long, it was too early in the season, the ground was too firm and it was just too testing for horses that had just turned three.”

Run at the beginning of June, the French Derby is the sixth Group 1 on the French racing calendar, and occupies an equivalent position to the G1 Victoria Derby.

“The race was producing horses that generally weren’t quite good enough to go on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, unless they were a rare animal. It was just too long. The perfect build-up was to go shorter, and then on to the 2400-metre Arc later in the year.”

The turnaround in form has been tremendous; Shamardal (USA) won the new format race in 2005, and topline winners since include Lope De Vega (Ire), Le Havre (Ire), and Almanzor (Fr), as well as promising shuttle stallion St Mark’s Basilica (Fr), who added his first stakes winner from his first crop in August. St Mark’s Basilica’s first yearlings were well backed at the sales, making up to $700,000 in the ring off of a $44,000 (inc GST) service fee.

Montjeu (Ire) and Darshaan (GB) are the most striking winning sires from the Derby’s longer days, with a special mention to Celtic Swing (GB), whose most notable feat in the breeding barn is being the sire of globetrotting star Takeover Target.

“If you compare the quality of stallions to win the French Derby since 2005 to the 20 years before, they are chalk and cheese,” Le Metayer said. “There was a point where Derby winners were becoming National Hunt stallions, and that’s why the shift was needed.

“My assessment is that it’s all well and good having 2400-metre races, but if the program is shortening, then there’s no point having this great staying race for 3-year-olds, because we’re going to be breeding less and less of those kinds of horses anyway.”

The case for going the distance

A counterpoint in terms of success could be seen in Japan; the 2400-metre G1 Tōkyō Yūshun, the Japanese Derby, has long been a touchstone for 3-year-old colts angling for a stud career. The race has been won by some of Japan’s most influential stallions like Deep Impact (Jpn), King Kamehameha (Jpn), and Kizuna (Jpn) - since Deep Impact’s first crop of 3-year-olds arrived in 2011, he has sired seven winners of the Japan Derby.

Deep Impact’s last crop of foals include the Coolmore bred and raced G1 Epsom Derby Auguste Rodin (Ire), a Group 1 winner at two, three, and four who will shuttle to New Zealand this spring for his first season at stud.

Japan continues to have a lot of respect for middle-distance performers, with Derby winner Adayar (Ire) joining the stallion ranks in 2024 alongside Hukum (Ire), who raced into his sixth year and picked up his Group 1s as a five and 6-year-old. Hukum is also a full brother to the Champion 3YO Miler Baaeed (Ire).

“Interestingly, in relation to Adayar, some breeders were explaining to me recently that, of course, the Holy Grail for Japan is to win the Arc, and it's something that Japan has gone close to doing once or twice,” Darley Japan’s Harry Sweeney told TDN ahead of Adayar’s first stallion parades last year."

The G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is run over 2400 metres in October - Kizuna finished fourth in 2013, Orfevre (Jpn) ran second twice, and Deep Impact was third across the line in 2006, although was later disqualified. El Condor Pasa (USA) looked to take the win home to Japan in 1999, only for Montjeu to dash his hopes by half a length.

“Someone pointed out to me that since about the last 12 Arcs have all been won by horses from the Northern Dancer line, they were going to breed Sunday Silence-line mares to a son of Galileo, like Frankel, with the hook that they might run well in Europe in addition to Japan.”

There are only two Group 1 races in Japan over sprint distances, Sweeney explained, and there is no incentive to shorten any of their races in a country that enjoys seeing horses race on year after year. Japan Derby winner Rey de Oro (Jpn) raced until his fifth season, and his first crop of foals have produced three stakes winners already.

“There is no real move to change,” Sweeney said. “The idea of a horse coming out and winning a Group 1 race at two and then going to stud, that really couldn't happen in Japan because breeders want to see soundness, they want to see longevity. And I mean that's one thing that's interesting for both of these horses.

“Adayar won races at two, three, four and five, but actually Hukum was one step better: a winner at two, three, four, five and six. Japanese breeders appreciate that, because we need soundness.”

The programming supports this mentality, as Sweeney detailed.

“Japan has a great programme for running older horses,” he said. “A horse like Ushba Tesoro, for example, who won the Dubai World Cup last year (2023), he stays in training at seven. So we like longevity, and that's one thing that the Japanese breeders will appreciate regarding these horses. They were sound and won over many seasons. There is no rush here to win a big race like the Golden Slipper, or the equivalent, and send them off to stud, absolutely not.”

The horse with longevity as well as performance prowess is well respected both on the track and in the stallion barn in Japan, but how can we translate that to Australia? The hinge point still remains at the Classics.

It’s worth noting that Galileo (Ire) and High Chaparral (Ire) were both Derby winners who could be considered “undesirable” in Australia - High Chaparral being sent to stand in New Zealand, who had a greater appreciation for his record - in terms of their commercial appeal, but both have become highly influential on both the stallion ranks and the broodmare population down under.

Group 2-winning 1800-metre horse Black Tide (Jpn) may have lived in the shadow of his younger brother Deep Impact’s success, but his impact can be felt strongly in the covering shed as the sire of Kitasan Black (Jpn), who in turn is the sire of two-time Japanese Horse Of The Year and exciting young stallion Equinox (Jpn).

Shorter and sharper

Le Metayer could see Australia’s Derbies being shortened even further than the French Derby to complement the rest of the race program; there are plenty of opportunities at 2000 metres in open company, and it may pay well to set horses up for those kinds of goals.

Three-year-olds winning over a strong 2000 metres could well build further out in distance as their career progresses; the 2400-metre G1 Caulfield Cup, which has some of the best wagering turnover in the country in relation to its prize pool, looms as an obvious target in a 4-year-old spring.

“It’s very strange to have the Victoria Derby over 2500 metres in the spring, when horses have just turned three, and then five months later, you have the Australian Derby that’s shorter,” Le Metayer said.

“It should be the other way round. Perhaps really the Derbies should be over 2000 metres, then the really good horses can then try to challenge the Cox Plate (the following spring). Then, we start breeding horses that are stronger over 2000 metres and there’s a lot of good races at that distance.”

A reversal of distances between the two Derby majors would at the very least better suit horses’ development towards both targets; from 15 Victoria Derby winners to attempt the double in the G1 Australian Derby, only two - Hitotsu and Riff Rocket (American Pharaoh {USA}) - have managed it, and one - Ace High - has placed.

“When you’re training horses, it’s important to build them up over distances as you go along,” Le Metayer continued. “So if you have a top 3-year-old that can win over 2000, 2100 metres, then you aren’t going to overtax him, so then you can build him up to another big target later on in the season, like an Arc.

“When Chris Waller spoke about the jump from 2400 metres to the 3200 metres of the Melbourne Cup, he said that 800 metres is an enormous gap for a horse’s stamina. They're just not the same types of horses at all.”

Mick Price and Danny O’Brien have long been proponents of shortening the Victoria Derby; as early as 2008, O’Brien has called for a shorter race 12 months after his Derby runner Villain (Carnegie {Ire}) finished fourth and never won again. His argument remains that a shorter Derby would both take less out of colts and elevate their stud value, as opposed to being “irrelevant” for colts now, in his view.

Le Metayer cannot stress enough the positive impact that a shorter French Derby has had on European breeding; “It’s certainly a change that has had a huge impact on the French breeding and racing industry, and I think we need to do the same in Australia. We don't need to have Derby races over 2400 metres because we don't breed those types of horses, but we've got plenty of good races over 2000 metres.”

In an economy that values the precocious horse and the swift return, shortening or staggering the Derby distances would be a step in the right direction towards making the market value the middle-distance horse bred at home. Two furlongs could be all the difference.

If you would like to contribute to this series - especially as we turn to discussing solutions, send your thoughts or ideas to vicky@ttrausnz.com.au.