By Tom Frary
Delayed by an hour due to a course inspection at Chester, the Listed Dee Stakes eventually went the same way of the previous day's Classic trials and fell to Ballydoyle and their exciting colt Constitution River (Wootton Bassett).
While the fall-out from the lengthy delay was the withdrawal of winner's key rival Morshdi (Dubawi) as Tom Marquand described the track's home bend as dangerous, there can be no debate about the outcome of the 10-furlong Derby trial with the winner so utterly dominant.
Content to wait in third early on last year's G2 Futurity Stakes winner, Ryan Moore sent the 2-9 favourite up the inner off the final turn and he exploded to win by seven lengths from Generic (Kameko). Third was Golden Story (Lope De Vega), another 2 3/4 lengths behind, with the final time of 2:06.54 a clear race record.
“He's a very good horse, I think,” Moore said. “It went very smoothly, like a piece of work. He's a Wootton Bassett, a big strong horse, a gorgeous horse. I love everything he did today, he has a good future. Both him and Benvenuto Cellini handled this track fine and are two very good horses.”
Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore are now 10 winners from their last 10 runners when paired up on Chester's famous Roodee, while this was a 13th Dee Stakes winner for the trainer and ninth for Moore. It is also O'Brien's eighth in the last nine years.
Interestingly, none of the yard's winners went on to lift the Derby trophy, with the last Dee winner to do so being the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Kris Kin in 2003. Kevin Buckley's immediate post-race reaction suggested that Constitution River might not be first choice to end that drought, particularly in the aftermath of Benvenuto Cellini's performance over a longer trip the day previously. “That could be his optimum trip,” Coolmore representative said. “He was really well-balanced and I loved that turn of foot.”
Paul Smith also seemed to be thinking of speedier tests than the Derby in the winner's enclosure. “He has the St James's Palace entry and he seems to quicken well, so I guess you could drop him back if you wanted to,” he said. “It's just what the team want to do with him really. I think 10 furlongs, 12 furlongs or a mile, all the options are there.”
“You couldn't be more happy really,” he added. “He did it well on his first run for a long time and there was a lot of freshness there, but he's a good-looking lad who ticks a lot of boxes. We're excited. We're going to have all the trials over the next week then sit down and decide who goes where. Hopefully they all bounce out of their races well and can be ready to run wherever next month.”
Constitution River is the first foal out of the once-raced Chuppy (Le Havre), a full-sister to the high-class Wonderful Tonight who captured the Prix de Royallieu and British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at the highest level and the Hardwicke and Lillie Langtry at Group 2 level. Also a half to the G3 Prix Cleopatre third Heartache Tonight (Recorder), she is a granddaughter of the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Birdie (Alhaarth) which links her to this stable's 2,000 Guineas and Derby hero Camelot.
Chuppy's second foal is the two-year-old filly Sensational Filly (Mehmas) was a €300,000 purchase by Paddy Twomey for Bond Thoroughbred Limited at last year's Arqana Deauville August.
Constitution River slams his rivals in the Dee Stakes! 🤩@ChesterRaces pic.twitter.com/4hQSjDVONY
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 7, 2026
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