Constitution River will run in the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly over 10 furlongs rather than the Betfred Derby at Epsom. The colt missed the latter part of his juvenile campaign due to injury and returned with a dominant performance in Chester’s Dee Stakes. After market attention suggested he could be a Derby contender, the trainer chose the French Classic because the colt had only raced up to seven furlongs as a two-year-old and had not run in the Guineas. The trainer believed the mile and a quarter at Chester showed promise but that Epsom’s mile and a half was a larger step. The Prix du Jockey Club offers a tactical, more demanding test, and the decision aims to assess staying ability later in the year.
"He only ran over seven furlongs as a two-year-old, he didn't go any further and obviously he didn't run in the Guineas, so a mile and a quarter was going to be a big step up for him."
"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."
Read at Irish Independent
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