It’s little wonder Ryan Moore isn’t taking anything for granted ahead of Auguste Rodin’s run in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.
The fact he’s yet to win the race is surprising and that’s upgraded to amazing when you consider his eight rides in it have been Carlton House, Highland Reel, Idaaho, Wings Of Eagles, Saxon Warrior, Anthony Van Dyck, High Definition and Tuesday.
Aidan O’Brien has always said there’s something different about Auguste Rodin though and at Epsom on Betfred Derby day we got the first real glimpses of what.
You can see why he’s always been deemed important, by Deep Impact out of Oaks second Rhododendrom he represents the top bloodlines of Japan and Ireland.
He was the horse that the entire Ballydoyle season was built around. Talk of a potential Triple Crown flowed freely through the spring only for that dream to die in the muddy fields of Newmarket.
To rebuild him form a lifleless 12th of 14th on the first Saturday of May to Derby hero in less than a month might be O’Brien’s finest hour as a trainer – and my word there have been a few.
It was a remarkable achievement, a sense of vindication as Moore gathered him down the centre of the track to produce a sustained run through the final two furlongs to cut down King Of Steel and score by half-a-length.
And there was a faint sense that we might just be scratching the surface of what the colt is capable of.
With the Epsom runner-up taking in Ascot rather trekking across the Irish Sea there are those who wonder what Sunday’s Classic can actually tell us.
After all Auguste Rodon is 1/3 to beat a field that mainly consists of stablemates and horses who couldn’t lay a glove on him at the start of the month.
True Sprewell looked all-at-sea on the cambers of Epsom and White Birch did well to finish third having found himself with far too much to do after another slow start and the lack of a searching gallop but even in their most optimistic moment do connections expect them to reverse form?
The pressure on the favourite is not only to confirm it but to do so with aplomb, continue the upward trajectory.
Hyperbole surrounding Coolmore-owned horses isn’t something new – it looks great on the front cover of stallion brochures after all – and if Auguste Rodin is to prove himself something different it has to be on the track.
He heads into the weekend feature with a master Timeform rating of 125p, a base figure that puts him a shade above your average Derby winner.
It’s what the p signifies that’s important, how much more is there left in the tank?
Sunday isn’t just about him winning – but the style of the victory too. He needs to again but daylight between himself and his rivals before sterner late-summer and autumn tests.
2023 was supposed to be the year of Auguste Rodin, it might still be, but the Irish Derby will tell us a lot more than the betting suggests.
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