Can Auguste Rodin become 19th horse for Derby double and follow up Epsom win at the Curragh?

The Derby double dozen

Sunday sees the 157th renewal of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh and therefore there have been 156 possible occasions in the past where the Derby double (Epsom and the Irish) could have been achieved.

After over a century and a half of chances a total of 18 horses have done the double, but while the first Irish Derby was run in 1866 it wasn’t until Orby in 1907 that a horse first landed both races. After him there was another long wait until Santa Claus won the English and Irish Derbys in 1964 (granted, it will have been plenty more difficult to travel horses overseas those first 100 years!).

The third horse to win the two Classics at Epsom and the Curragh was the great Triple Crown hero Nijinsky in 1970 and he kick-started somewhat of a golden era for dual Derby winners; Grundy (1975), The Minstrel (1977), Shirley Heights (1978), Troy (1979), Shergar (1981), Shahrastani (1986), Kahyasi (1988), Generous (1991) and Commander In Chief (1993) all followed, taking the number of horses to do the Derby double to 12 by the end of the 20th century.

Recent history

The beginning of the 21st century coincided with the rise to prominence of Aidan O’Brien and of the 10 horses to attempt the Epsom-Curragh double since 2000 he has trained seven of them, winning with four.

He won both races with his very first Epsom winner, the great stallion Galileo in 2001, and followed that up a year later with High Chaparral who achieved the same feat. Camelot (2012) and Australia (2014) are the other two dual-Derby winners trained by the master of Ballydoyle.

While that quartet were the success stories, a trio of O’Brien horses failed in their pursuit of becoming double-Derby heroes; Ruler Of The World, who was sent off at 4/5 at the Curragh in 2013 following his Epsom win, Wings Of Eagles, who was 2/1 in 2017, and Anthony Van Dyck, who was 5/4 in 2019.

Away from the O’Brien hordes Sinndar (2000), trained by John Oxx, and Harzand (2016), trained by Dermot Weld, both horses owned by the Aga Khan, were the other two to complete the Derby double this century.

That leaves one other horse who has tried and failed the Derby double mission in recent times; North Light, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, who was 8/11 to win at the Curragh in 2004, but was beaten half a length by Weld’s Grey Swallow as Pat Smullen drove the winner home following a terrific race.

Ballydoyle favourites

Aidan O’Brien has won the Irish Derby a record 14 times but automatically backing his favourites has not been a wise policy in this race, especially in the last decade.

His 6/4 favourite Eagle Mountain could finish only third in 2007, before the aforementioned dual-Derby seekers Ruler Of The World, Wings Of Eagles and Anthony Van Dyck were all beaten favourites after their Epsom successes since 2013.

Add in Saxon Warrior (Evens, 2018), High Definition (9/4, 2021) and Tuesday (11/8, 2022) and it all adds up to six beaten O’Brien favourites in the Irish Derby in the last 10 years.

This year’s task

That brings us on nicely to O’Brien’s Auguste Rodin, who will be a short price (he’s generally 1/3 at the time of writing and a best of 2/5) to become the 19th horse in history (and the trainer’s fifth) to win the two Derbys.

He bounced back from a poor showing in the 2000 Guineas to win at Epsom and the early signs are good for this year’s Derby, with both the runner-up, King Of Steel, and the sixth home, Waipiro, coming out and winning at Royal Ascot.

Indeed, it could well be that Auguste Rodin’s sternest challengers this weekend will be horses he has already beaten at Epsom.

White Birch, trained by John Joseph Murphy, and Sprewell, trained by Jessica Harrington, will be bidding to improve on their respective third and fourth positions from Epsom at the Curragh.

Given plenty to do in the Derby, White Birch could well have claims of eating into the five-and-a-quarter lengths deficit he has to make up on Auguste Rodin, if he can lay up closer in the early stages, while Sprewell seemed all at sea on the Epsom camber and could run with greater purpose on this more conventional track.

Away from the Epsom form there is Joseph O’Brien’s Up and Under, beaten by White Birch and Sprewell in Leopardstown Derby trials in the spring, and Knight To King, Dermot Weld's fascinating once-raced Kingman colt, a half-brother to Group 1 monster Ghaiyyath, who bolted up in a Gowran maiden on June 5.

After that it remains to be seen how many outsiders O’Brien runs against Auguste Rodin, with all of them having plenty to prove, while Ralph Beckett’s Salt Bay has a mighty task.

Will he do it?

The prohibitive odds tell you that Auguste Rodin has a fine chance of becoming the 19th horse to do the double and no upsets are expected here.

You simply had to be impressed by the way he ran down what looks a very good horse in King Of Steel at Epsom, especially in light of what the runner-up did at Royal Ascot, and the pair were well clear of Sunday’s main market rivals White Birch and Sprewell.

It will be interesting to see if Weld runs Knight To King, an exciting colt from an exceptional family that usually needs time – Weld trained the half-sister, Zhukova, who won her only G1 as a five-year-old, while his brilliant half-brother, Ghaiyyath, won the first of his four G1s in the September of his four-year-old career.

He could be one to watch for the future, but double Derby seeker Auguste Rodin looks the horse for the here and now.

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