G2 Dante: The Foxes stakes Derby claim at York
Just three months since returning to race riding after a 14-month suspension, Oisin Murphy has a leading Derby candidate with a bundle of tick-box traits.
There is a chipper tenacity about The Foxes that will serve him well when he encounters the rising, falling, turning, testing Epsom Downs course in two weeks’ time. The Derby is no race for the feeble of constitution and the Andrew Balding-trained colt showed in winning the G2 Dante Stakes at York that he could have the necessary qualities, both mentally and athletically.
Such things are discussed on a loop in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the moment when the best of the European Classic crop’s middle-distance cohort break from the starting gate. Is he well-balanced? Will he handle the downhill sweep around Tattenham Corner? Can he cope with the huge crowd and tension of the day?
And then the big one: will he stay? There are those, like Sea The Stars, that proved the doubters to be fools; and others, like Dubawi, that found the stamina well was dry with a furlong still to run.
If ‘Derby Bingo’ was a thing, then the stamina question would be the wide margin winner, so often is it posed and mulled over.
“He is a fast horse,” says Oisin Murphy in his post-Dante interview, minutes after he has driven The Foxes to a neck success in the 10-furlong feature, a race that is always a key trial for the mile and a half blue riband down in commuter-belt Surrey.
The Foxes wins the Dante!
The Foxes stays on best of all under @oismurphy to repel the late challenge of White Birch in the closing stages of the Group 2 @ABE_Dubai Dante Stakes!
Have we seen the Derby winner? @AndrewBalding2 | @yorkracecourse pic.twitter.com/MVBxF2uzOe
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 18, 2023
“They need speed in the Derby,” Murphy adds, then anticipates the stamina question like a ‘Derby Bingo’ veteran. “While we don’t know if he’ll definitely stay, he has a great mind and he relaxes going any speed so he’ll give himself a good chance.”
Meanwhile, Balding – one Classic in the bag this year already after Chaldean’s 2,000 Guineas win – is holding court in a tight press huddle and says he had doubted the son of Churchill’s ability to see a mile and a half, but that this win had all but scotched such fears.
“He looks a likely candidate,” the trainer says.
“We always wanted to step him up in trip, he ran in a Guineas trial and if he had won that we might have thought about (the 2,000 Guineas), but this was always the aim.”
Since the Dante was established on York’s Knavesmire in 1958, 11 winners have gone on to win the Derby. The latest was just 12 months ago when the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Desert Crown was impressive in completing the double.
Desert Crown won his Dante by three-and-a-quarter lengths, leaving the knowledgeable Knavesmire crowd starry-eyed.