O’Brien: why French Derby is the right race for Constitution River

Aidan O’Brien feels the decision to target Sunday’s Qatar Prix du Jockey Club with Constitution River rather than the Betfred Derby at Epsom is the right one with the exciting colt’s long-term future in mind.

Having missed the latter part of his juvenile campaign due to injury, the son of Wootton Bassett looked every inch a Derby contender when dominating his rivals on his return to action in Chester’s Dee Stakes.

Bookmakers rated him the biggest threat to his Chester Vase-winning stablemate Benvenuto Cellini for the premier Classic on Saturday week and some even promoted him to Epsom favouritism following a market move on Sunday – but O’Brien had previously suggested the French equivalent was more likely and he will indeed head to Chantilly over 10 furlongs, rather than a mile and a half at Epsom.

“He always worked like a horse who had enough pace to run over a mile, so we weren’t sure he’d stay. He looked like he got the mile and a quarter well in Chester, but it’s a very flat, level track and you’re turning all the time.

“We felt for his progress going forward this was the right thing to do and the Prix du Jockey Club is a very important race now.

“It’s tactical, it’s more demanding than Chester and obviously the lads have horses for Epsom as well. They were trying to split them up and the Jockey Club was always on everybody’s mind for this horse.

“He’s by Wootton Bassett and some of them do get a mile and a half, but obviously you’re never sure until you do it. It’s very possible that he could get a mile and a half and we’ll probably find that out sometime towards the end of the year, but we felt this is enough of a test to see what happens.”

While Constitution River will be a hot favourite to provide O’Brien with a third French Derby following the previous triumphs of St Mark’s Basilica in 2021 and Camille Pissarro 12 months ago, his supporters will not be encouraged by the fact he is drawn 15 of 16 runners.

O’Brien added: “He is obviously drawn wide and whether any other Jockey Club winners have come from being drawn that wide I’m not sure, but it is what it is. If he had a low draw he could be locked in and he’s not going to be locked in now anyway!

“It will be interesting. He’s racing round a right-handed bend for the first time and he’s drawn out (wide). It’s going to be a little bit more difficult probably tactically for Ryan (Moore), so he’ll probably have to play it by ear and when those gates open he’ll probably have to make a lot of quick decisions.

“It’s probably not as straightforward as it would be if he was drawn lower, so we’ll see what will happen.”

Constitution River is of three O’Brien representatives alongside Hawk Mountain (stall 11), who overcame signs of waywardness to win the Prix de Guiche at Chantilly at the start of the month under Christophe Soumillon, and the Wayne Lordan-ridden Montreal (eight), who was beaten a head by fellow French Derby aspirant Dolmalan in late April.

“Christophe rode Hawk Mountain the last day and was very happy with him, he just felt he was very babyish still, he had cheekpieces on and when he got to the front he waited and wriggled around a little bit,” said O’Brien added.

“He said to try a visor on him, that’s what we did do and we felt that it’s helped him.

“We were delighted with Montreal’s run too. He only had two starts as a two-year-old and he was just ready to start at Chantilly. We were delighted to get the run into him and delighted to get the run into him around the track as well.”

Despite opting against Epsom with Constitution River, O’Brien will still be well represented, with Benvenuto Cellini set to be joined by several stablemates including winter favourite Pierre Bonnard, who his trainer remains adamant is not out of the equation despite successive spring defeats at Leopardstown.

He told Sky Sports Racing: “(Benvenuto) Cellini looks the main one, Pierre is there as the second, and the second and the third from the Dante (Action and Christmas Day) might run as well. They’re all good, they all seem to be fine since their races and we’re looking forward to that.

“Pierre Bonnard has improved a lot since his second run at Leopardstown. We thought he would and he has – he’s a different horse now.”