By Chris McGrath
For the two trainers most vexed by the provocative celebrations of Mikael Barzalona on Pour Moi (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) in 2011, the Derby has become a source of deeply contrasting fortunes. Aidan O'Brien, whose front-running outsider Treasure Beach (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) was only caught on the line, came back and saddled the next three winners. For Sir Michael Stoute, things have been very different. Carlton House (Street Cry {Ire}) was beaten under a length that day, having started favourite to emulate his stablemate, Workforce (GB) (King's Best), the previous year. Freemason Lodge has not mustered a single Derby runner since.
This time round, however, both men already appear to have legitimate hopes of winning a sixth Derby–and so coming within touching distance of the record of seven, currently shared by three past titans in John Porter, Fred Darling and Robert Robson.
O'Brien, once again, has a hand packed with aces by his employers' champion stallion Galileo (Ire). In the circumstances, then, it would be difficult to overstate the importance to Stoute of the marker laid down on Friday by a Galileo colt of his own. A son of the multiple Group 1 winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), Midterm (GB) could hardly have made a deeper impression within the superficial limitations of his performance in the G3 Bet365 Classic Trial.
If it seemed curious that he should have arrived at Sandown as one of two colts heading the Epsom market with just a maiden win to his name–the other being O'Brien's US Army Ranger (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})–then how much more so that he should have achieved this advance billing as such a notoriously lazy worker. Yet this want of style at home is matched by a persuasive substance in his public deeds.
On the face of it, you could not get too carried away after seeing him driven out to beat another maiden winner by a length and a half. But it is not just his pedigree, nor the expertise of his supervision from foaling shed onwards, that give Midterm the highborn air of a colt who just seems to belong naturally in the Derby equation. The latent positives in his Sandown performance together leave an irresistible sense that he has so far disclosed only the tip of an iceberg.
These include: an outstanding time, relative to four other races on the card over the distance (including a group race contested by older horses); the likelihood that the runner-up, Algometer (GB) (Archipenko), will himself prove a smart middle-distance colt after pulling eight lengths clear of the third; the certainty that the tacky conditions were inimical to a colt of such transparent quality and athleticism; and the suspicion that Ryan Moore was only obliged to use the whip at all, after challenging more or less on the bridle, to get the attention of a colt whose indolent disposition remains aggravated, at this stage, by inexperience.
His whole demeanour suggests that Midterm to be just the kind of racing machine you would hope to produce from such a mating. Stoute laments that his sleepy nature makes him difficult to educate at home; but the colt certainly comes alive at the track, on his toes as soon as he was saddled and showing ample commitment through the race. Having pricked his ears and edged right, once in front, it is easy to envisage his next start–either at Chester or York–making him so much more streetwise that he would not necessarily have to win, especially if confined to 10 furlongs, to advance his cause.
Zarak: So Far So Good…
Midterm had strong competition as the best-bred winner of the week, with 'TDN Rising Star' Zarak (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) maintaining his own immaculate start at Maisons-Laffitte on Tuesday. The first foal of the champion Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar) to make it onto the track, he treated a conditions race over the straight mile as little more than a piece of work, produced fairly late under hands and heels by Christophe Soumillon and always holding another hitherto unbeaten colt, George Patton (War Front), by a neck.
It must be said that the runner-up, who disappeared after beating a subsequent Group 1 winner last summer, displayed an awkward head carriage when himself asked to quicken. Whether still green or nervous of some mental or physical pain barrier, the race was over before he could bear down on the winner. Be that as it may, Zarak showed a smooth turn of foot and, seeming only to switch leads in the shadow of the post, evidently has more to come. Alain de Royer-Dupre appears in no doubt that the colt has the raw class for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains at Deauville, though it remains to be seen how he will cope with faster ground later in the season.
Less obvious antecedents sustain the rise of Dicton (GB) (Lawman {GB}), who counted Zarak's stablemate Vedevani (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) among his victims when narrowly winning the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau at Chantilly the next day. Claimed for just €22,000 last autumn by Gianluca Bietolini, he has made such prodigious strides that he could yet be supplemented for Deauville.
The fillies' trial on the same card, once won by Zarkava herself, produced an impressive winner in Qemah (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {GB}). Gassy early, despite what seemed a decent tempo, she was nonetheless able to produce a really energetic finish and will surely have a major say in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.
A Famous Week for Famous Mothers…
Twenty-four hours after Zarak made it two wins in two starts, So Mi Dar (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) did exactly the same in the Investec Derby Trial at Epsom. As a result, her dam Dar Re Mi (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) once again followed honourably in the slipstream of Zarkava, just as she did when they contested the G1 Prix Vermeille of 2008.
Receiving five pounds from the colts, the neatly built So Mi Dar coped nimbly with the hill and this early reconnaissance will give her an advantage over most should she return for the G1 Investec Oaks–for which she is now as short as 6-1 second favourite–after her next rehearsal at York. John Gosden told Frankie Dettori that he was on no account to use the whip on a filly who had won her sole start at Windsor last autumn, and the jockey denied himself any temptation by dropping it early in the straight. She took a little organising after that, and drifted down the camber once working her way into the lead, but overall looks a highly proficient type and it was encouraging that she was able to get there more or less under her own steam after proving quite fresh in the early stages.
The champion trainer has suspected for some time that his 3-year-old fillies could have rather more depth than his colts this year, but cautioned that Swiss Range (GB) (Zamindar) may not be so eligible an Oaks type despite heading for a trial at Newmarket this weekend. A five-length maiden winner at the Craven meeting, she inclines Gosden to view 10 furlongs as the limit of her stamina.
Palmer Promoted in the Home Guard…
Entering Guineas week, the force remains unmistakably with Ballydoyle. The defection of 'TDN Rising Star' Emotionless (Ire) (Shamardal) leaves the season's first Classic in the ever tighter grip of Air Force Blue (War Front)–and Godolphin, for all its amorphous expansion, suffering familiar springtime pangs. The O'Brien juveniles have also landed running, with Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) making an eye-catching start as one of four winners for the stable at Dundalk last Monday. It would be nice to think that he could make a Royal Ascot colt and, as such, a fitting bequest from the sire whose sudden loss shocked his owners in December.
But the home defence has an increasingly formidable bulwark these days in Hugo Palmer, whose breathless rise can be measured by a squad of no fewer than 90 juveniles this term. One of them, a glistening black beauty named Hyperfocus (Ire) (Intense Focus), won by five lengths at Leicester on Saturday, where Palmer also saddled the 4-year-old Home Of The Brave (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) for a striking success in listed company. In a career of fits and starts to date, this colt has occasionally hinted at elite calibre and could yet make his big breakthrough in the G1 Al Shaqab Lockinge S. next month.
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