Former Ballydoyle star a presence in Constitution River's pedigree

Horse Racing

Sun June 07, 2026 · 2h ago

John Ingles looks into the pedigree of Prix du Jockey Club winner Constitution River.

Last weekend’s Prix du Jockey Club gave further reason to regret the loss of Wootton Bassett who died in Australia last September.

The ‘French Derby’ has been a significant race in the stallion’s career as it was won in 2016 by Almanzor, the top-class colt from Wootton Bassett’s very first crop who got his sire’s career off to a flying start after he had been standing in France at an initial fee of just €6,000.

Wootton Bassett had a very different profile by the time of his next Jockey Club winner. That was Camille Pissarro, successful for Ballydoyle last year, who came from Wootton Bassett’s first crop as a Coolmore stallion, by which time his fee had rocketed to €100,000. Wootton Bassett was responsible for not just the latest winner, Constitution River, but also the runner-up Hawk Mountain, that pair bred at a covering fee of €150,000. In what proved to be his final season at Coolmore in Ireland last year, Wootton Bassett had been standing for €300,000.

Montreal completed a one-two-three for Aidan O’Brien in the Jockey Club, with his son Donnacha saddling A Boy Named Susie who completed the frame, but if Gallic pride needed restoring after a race dominated by Irish-trained colts, there was some solace from the fact that Constitution River carried an ‘FR’ suffix. He was bred at Pierre Talvard’s Haras du Cadran in Normandy which had also produced the 2014 winner The Grey Gatsby, ridden, like Constitution River, by Ryan Moore but for Kevin Ryan.

Constitution River’s French origins no doubt played a large part in his chosen Derby assignment as going to Chantilly rather than Epsom meant that he qualified for a bonus as a French-bred, one that took his total prize money for last Sunday’s win over the one million euro mark.

Constitution River impressed Timeform in the Dee Stakes

Constitution River impressed at Chester before going to France

That alone comfortably covers Constitution River’s purchase price at Deauville as a yearling of €400,000. Incidentally, the Coolmore team's shopping spree at that sale has proved particularly successful, as another purchase there was the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Diamond Necklace who topped the sale at €1.7m and will be bidding for a Chantilly classic herself next weekend in the Prix de Diane. The unbeaten Diamond Necklace is by St Mark’s Basilica, another French-bred winner of the Jockey Club for Ballydoyle.

Looking at the dam’s side of Constitution River’s pedigree now, it’s interesting to see that both his dam and grandam were themselves daughters of Prix du Jockey Club winners. His dam Chuppy is by the 2009 winner Le Havre, while grandam Salvation was by Montjeu who won the Jockey Club when the ‘French Derby’ label was more fitting, the race being still run over a mile and a half in those days.

Chuppy has been through the Araqana sale ring at Deauville a few times herself with varying results. She evidently didn’t attract much attention as a foal, as she was the subject of a private sale for €30,000, but the following August her owners had to go to €80,000 to retain her. But while she was highly regarded enough to have been entered in the Prix de Diane, she ended up running just twice, finishing fifth in a newcomers race at Saint-Cloud for Pascal Bary in March of her three-year-old season and then not seen again until December when she filled the same position in a minor contest on the all-weather at Lyon La Soie for Christophe Ferland.

Chuppy’s own racing career might not have amounted to much, but the bidding went a lot higher when she next went through the Deauville ring as a six-year-old broodmare in foal to Kodiac in December 2024, being led out unsold at €320,000.

Heightened interest in Chuppy came chiefly from the exploits of her year-older full sister Wonderful Tonight who had made into a very smart filly in Britain for David Menuisier. Doing all her winning on soft or heavy ground, Wonderful Tonight won her first pattern race at three in the Group 3 Prix Minerve at Deauville and ended that season completing an autumn Group 1 double in the Prix de Royallieu and Fillies & Mares Stakes. Ground conditions were in her favour again the following summer when she won the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Lillie Langtry Stakes at Goodwood.

Wonderful Tonight strikes at Goodwood

Younger half-sister Heartache Tonight (by Acomb Stakes winner Recorder) had also picked up some black type in France for Wonderful Tonight’s connections, finishing third in the Prix Cleopatre at Saint-Cloud.

Constitution River’s grandam Salvation (now a broodmare in Japan) had one run for Michael Bell at two in the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing colours before going on to win three times in France at up to thirteen furlongs. Bell had also trained Salvation’s dam, Birdie, who won the Oaks Trial at Lingfield, and that filly’s half-sister Fickle who also earned some black type, winning a listed handicap at Newcastle.

Fickle became a successful broodmare too, producing the Dahlia Stakes winner Tarfah (by Kingmambo) which is where we return to Ballydoyle. Sent to Montjeu, Tarfah produced a colt who was bought by the Coolmore team for 525,000 guineas as a yearling. Camelot justified that outlay in winning the 2000 Guineas and then the Derby, though to the disappointment of those present, myself included, who had turned up at Doncaster hoping – or even expecting (he started at 2/5) – to witness the first triple crown winner since Nijinsky 42 years earlier, Camelot was beaten for the first time in the St Leger.

Camelot winning the Investec Derby

An unsuccessful Arc bid, and then an underwhelming four-year-old campaign, failed to restore Camelot’s reputation which, with his trainer at least, had been sky-high.

‘I haven’t ever had anything like him before, or even close to him’ O’Brien had said before the St Leger. So when a colt by Wootton Bassett from the family of Camelot - the future Constitution River - went through the ring at Deauville in August 2023, there was never likely to be much doubt that he would end up anywhere else but Ballydoyle.

By way of a postscript, Camelot sired a first Derby winner of his own on Saturday with Christmas Day winning at Epsom.

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