Pride Of Arras stuns Dante field with 18-1 success

Pride Of Arras caused a real upset in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes as The Lion In Winter was soundly beaten at York.

The latter horse was the ante-post Derby favourite and was expected to take a step towards the Classic at York, but after wrestling with Ryan Moore in the early stages, the 8-11 market leader never seemed to land a blow and finished unplaced.

Instead it was Pride Of Arras, ridden by Rossa Ryan and trained by Ralph Beckett, who came to the fore with length-and-a-quarter triumph at odds of 18-1, with 16-1 shot Damysus second and Wimbledon Hawkeye third.

Pride Of Arras, who won on his only juvenile start at Sandown, is now a 4-1 chance with Paddy Power for the Betfred Derby, having been available at 50s before the race.

Beckett said: “I think that was everything I hoped for and more.

“I was saying to the owner that I’d been tough on him to get him here, we had to take him away, he galloped at Lambourn about two and a half weeks ago and he’d been on the watered gallop at home several times.

“He’ll come forward from today as well, when I say I was tough on him it was his lack of experience, he rolled around at Sandown before he went clear, he found experience easy in the end but through the race he wasn’t finding it easy.”

Beckett saddled Bluestocking to finish a narrow second in the 2023 Irish Oaks and win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last season, while Westover was third in the Derby at Epsom the previous year before going on to land the Irish version.

The trainer thinks it is hard to compare those Juddmonte runners with Pride Of Arras, but feels the son of New Bay merits a crack at the Classic.

He added: “He’s worthy of his place (in the Derby). It’s difficult to say he’s like my other Classic horses. I’ve trained for Mrs Aykroyd all my career and this is a home bred. He’s not a Westover, he’s not Bluestocking. He has a good back pedigree but not the profile of those, if you like.

“But in saying that, he has more speed than Westover, he’s a better workhorse than he was.

“If he handles Epsom, which I think he will, and he handles the jamboree, which based on today I think he will, we’ve every right to think we’re going there to be competitive. What happens after that, who knows?”

John and Thady Gosden trained the second, fourth and fifth-placed horses in Damysus, Devil’s Advocate and Nightwalker.

“All three horses ran great, and we’re delighted with them. Damysus especially ran a great race and we’re really happy with him,” said John Gosden.

“We’ll work out what’s next as maybe that’s his trip, but maybe we can think about going a little further with him too as he stayed on well.”

James Owen’s Wimbledon Hawkeye was third under Hector Crouch and has booked his ticket to the Derby as a result.

The trainer said: “It was a great run. They were two lovely colts in front of us and we’ve beaten the favourite. I thought we were going to win coming down the straight and he’s taken his racing so well.

“He’s exciting for the future and we’ll be definitely going to the Derby. We thought the ground was a little bit over watered and Hector said it wasn’t ideal. Real quick ground will suit him.”