North Light takes command of the Derby
North Light takes command of the Derby

Cazoo Derby: Record of Sir Michael Stoute Dante winners at Epsom


Desert Crown provided Sir Michael Stoute with his seventh win in the Al Basti Equiworld Dante Stakes. All of the previous six went on to run at Epsom and David Ord looks at how they fared.


1986 Shahrastani

Talk about starting with a bang - Stoute's first Dante winner became his second Derby winner but this was an Epsom Classic when all the talk was about the runner-up.

If you backed Shahrastani you collected, if you backed Dancing Brave you cried in your beer. Greville Starkey aboard the 2000 Guineas winner faced a seemingly hopeless task as they turned in at the rear of the field only for the brilliant son of Lyphard to find the sort of sustained acceleration only the greats possess.

He made up ground hand over fist but Walter Swinburn had got first run and held on by half-a-length. The winner followed up with an eight-length demolition of his Irish Derby rivals and all roads then led to the first of two re-matches with Dancing Brave in the King George at Ascot. The Derby winner was sent off favourite but, with Pat Eddery in the saddle, the Brave's revenge was authoritative - as it was when he again had Shahrastani back in fourth in the Arc.

1986 Epsom Derby

1992 Alnasr Alwasheek

He was good at trials - but the big prizes eluded the son of Sadler's Wells. When he won the Craven Stakes, beating subsequent Derby winner Dr Devious by a length-and-a-half, he looked a potential Group One miler. In the 2000 Guineas he came up short, never threatening to land a blow in ninth behind Rodrigo De Triano.

But he had bouncebackability and his three-length rout of Great Palm at York sparked Derby dreams. They never looked like being realised at Epsom, Steve Cauthen's mount finishing seventh behind the colt who got only a rear-view of him in the April trial. Two runs later and he was transferred from Newmarket to California to continue his career with Neil Drysdale.

2001 Dilshaan

A real case of what might have been. A two-race juvenile campaign ended with a thumping two-and-a-half length win in the artist now known as the Vertem Futurity at Doncaster.

Stoute was quick to rule out a tilt at the 2000 Guineas and it was always going to be the Dante. There was market weakness after reports he'd been slow to come to hand in the spring but he showed guts as well as his undoubted ability to edge out Celtic Silence and Storming Home after a sustained battle down the straight.

And so to Epsom, but after being well placed for much of the contest he weakened into seventh as the great Galileo stormed to one of the victories that defined his career. Dilshaan was never to race again after suffering a joint injury a month later.

"Competing in the Premier League with Third Division money." | Racing Education | Buying The Dream

2004 North Light

Not an identical profile to Desert Crown in that he ran twice at two, but not dissimilar. After a promising debut at Sandown he didn't venture beyond maiden company to win at the second attempt at Goodwood.

From there it was the Dante and he put himself firmly in the Derby picture with a half-length defeat of Rule Of Law. It was clear he had more in hand than the winning margin would suggest as he was eased down close home, and the York one-two-three were to fill the same spots at Epsom - this time the winning margin between North Light and Rule of Law was stretched to a length-and-a-half.

He wasn't to win again, turned over at odds-on in the Irish Derby and fifth in the Arc on two more runs at three. His sole start at four, before injury curtailed his career, was a promising second in the Brigadier Gerard.

2008 Tartan Bearer

Another owned by Ballymacoll Stud - and another who headed to York off the back of a maiden win on his second start. In his case it came in the April of his three-year-old career at Leicester and a head defeat of Frozen Fire at the Knavesmire seemed to mark him out as the main British hope for the Derby itself.

And so it proved. While New Approach proved half-a-length too good at Epsom, the Stoute colt pulled four-and-a-half lengths clear of Casual Conquest in third. He never went on to win at the top level but hit the frame in the Irish Derby, Prince Of Wales's Stakes and King George. A good Dante winner.

Tartan Bearer battles to victory in the Dante
Tartan Bearer battles to victory in the Dante

2011 Carlton House

He could have been among the most famous colts of recent times.

Sporting the colours of Her Majesty The Queen, he looked the one to end her quest for winning the world's most prestigious Flat race and looked every inch a Derby contender when winning at York, beating Seville by a length-and-a-half.

But it wasn't plain sailing from there. He knocked a joint in a routine canter in race-week and for a while his participation was in doubt.

They got him to Epsom but connections felt he wasn't at his best, treading water inside the distance as Pour Moi and Mickael Barzalona swept through to produce one of the most iconic photo-finishes of all time.

There was never a Group One triumph for Carlton House after that, a win in the 2012 Brigadier Gerard Stakes his only success post-Derby, including a spell in Australia for Gai Waterhouse.

"He celebrates like he's won the Derby" - a simply unforgettable finish to the 2011 Derby - Pour Moi


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