Derby reflections and look ahead to Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot

By Matt Brocklebank

Horse Racing

Mon June 09, 2025 · 6M ago

Matt Brocklebank can't help but feel a touch underwhelmed by Saturday's Derby and turns his focus to an unexposed filly who could yet light up the mile division.

Lambourn was a worthy – and almost worryingly straightforward – winner of Saturday’s Betfred Derby, but is he going to be a true three-year-old champion for the ages?

I can’t quite envisage that and you can certainly understand why he’s 14/1 for a race like the Arc and 2/1 for the St Leger. He's just one of those Derby winners for me, and surely not one classy enough to drop back in trip and conqueror a Juddmonte International or Irish Champion Stakes en route to Paris.

Perhaps he will end up in the Leger and the Arc – there’s a three-week gap and what else does Aidan O’Brien have for the latter other than last year’s third Los Angeles, or possibly one of his Oaks fillies?

I’ll eventually stop going on about Twain being the sleeping giant from Ballydoyle but it’s not like he’s 100/1 for the Arc, his current price (as short as 25s) making no genuine appeal given we’ve not seen him at all yet this year.

Sadly, the mile and a half horses – and the colts in particular – don’t impress me much this year and the prospect of running 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court over a mile and a half clearly didn’t excite Charlie Appleby at all, his connections leaving it pretty late to wait for another day.

That decision may have taken more than a little something away from Saturday’s Classic but it does reignite the rivalry between Ruling Court and Field Of Gold, the Newmarket runner-up having bolted up subsequently in the Irish Guineas at the Curragh.

Most firms are currently odds-on about the Gosden-trained grey taking his revenge in a little over a week’s time, with Ruling Court available at 3/1 in places. We’re hurtling towards a ‘Dual on the Downs’ scenario with the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood already in mind, but the Coral-Eclipse comes before then and what a race that promises to be if we not only have Field Of Gold and Ruling Court but the current Arc favourite Sosie, plus a host of other leading older horses in line for the race.

You can bet that Ballydoyle will want an iron in the Eclipse fire, having won three of the past four editions courtesy of City Of Troy, Paddington and St Mark’s Basilica, who were all aged three. So should we beware the wounded tiger, or lion in this instance?

The Lion In Winter may be by Sea The Stars but I doubt we’ll ever seen him race over a mile and a half again, and O’Brien even suggested on Sunday morning that he “could be a miler”.

He’s 40/1 for the Sussex for those who fell in love in the Acomb and still carry a torch for the horse, but Sandown could be very interesting in the meantime and you wouldn’t be laying 25/1 about The Lion In Winter if you knew for sure he was going for the Eclipse. Perhaps that tells you everything.

Delacroix is around 20/1 for the same race alongside stablemate Henri Matisse, who is currently playing gooseberry behind Field Of Gold and Ruling Court in the St James’s Palace picture.

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But it’s definitely these mile and 10-furlong races where all the unmissable action seems to be this year which brings me onto one of the unexposed three-year-olds I still think could really light up the summer (other than Twain, obviously).

Falakeyah came into the year a mere maiden winner having delivered at even-money first time out at Wolverhampton in November, but it was while laughing at her rivals in Newmarket’s Pretty Polly Stakes on 1000 Guineas day when she really grabbed our attention.

Since then a slightly strained narrative has played out in the media, which from the outside appeared like owners Shadwell and trainer Owen Burrows may have potentially held differing views over whether to run Falakeyah in last Friday's Oaks, this Sunday's Prix de Diane, or wait for the Royal meeting and run over a mile.

Maybe that’s not the case at all and deep down those closest to the horse have known all along that 12 furlongs was basically out of the question, the shorter distances much preferred given that aggressive, free-going nature with which she travelled under Jim Crowley on the Rowley Mile.

France may be more likely but either way it is very much hoped that her subsequent month on the sidelines has been by design. I'd love to see a supplementary entry for the Coronation Stakes, where she'd meet Guineas winners from Ireland (Lake Victoria), France (Zarigana) and possibly even England if Desert Flower can shrug off her Epsom exertions in time, at the confirmation stage this Saturday.

Burrows is on record stating he feels Falakeyah is probably “more Baaeed than Hukum” when weighing the up the daughter of New Bay against her hugely-talented relatives of recent years and, once again, it’s that reference to speed over stamina that is getting me out of my seat. Time will tell of course, but to borrow a phrase from children's author Suzanne Hemming, I get the impression 'she's not good for a girl, she's just good'.

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