There have been many Betfred Derby winners attempt to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris on the first Sunday in October down the years, but this year it is Epsom’s runner-up that has put himself in the driving seat from those amongst the Derby contingent.
It needed the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes on day one of York’s Ebor Festival to sort out the pecking order, Maltese Cross emphatically reversing Epsom form with Christmas Day, both horses saddling a 5lb Group 1 penalty, the winner going clear by two lengths from the Derby winner’s stablemate, Pierre Bonnard, in impressive fashion.
It turns out Christmas Day does only come around once a year, at Epsom in June, his four-and-a-quarter length third-place finish almost mimicking the run of last year’s Derby hero, Lambourn, who was a laboured fourth 12 months ago and has won once, an early-season Chester race, from six starts subsequently.
While Christmas Day looks to be going the same way, Epsom runner-up Maltese Cross goes from strength to strength, this a most impressive win, certainly with the penalty in mind, and in delivering it in very different fashion to when he faced adversity in the Grand Prix de Paris.
At Longchamp last month he had to display a previously unknown turn of foot through a fairly tight gap to get himself out of trouble, but there was no need for any such escape acts here at York as things went much more smoothly for Tom Marquand.
With the Ballydoyle horses putting the pace in the race, Marquand was happy to sit and wait until he made his challenge on the son of Sea The Stars and he had a willing partner who travelled comfortably before picking up his rivals with the Yorkshire crowd roaring him home.
We are far enough away from Doncaster to quietly acknowledge that he looks too good to take his chance in the Betfred St Leger, although trainer William Haggas stressed first to Matt Chapman on ITV and then to the assembled press that the Town Moor Classic was very much still on the table.
Greeted by the heartwarming sight of 95-year-old training legend Mick Easterby looking as happy as Larry in his wheelchair and shaking the winning trainer’s hand upon entering the winner’s enclosure, seconds after Maltese Cross’s victory, Haggas was in no mood to let the pleasant exchange knock him off guard.
“I was very happy with him today,” said Haggas.
“That was a proper Group 1 performance.”
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Pushed on whether the ground would be a factor in his decision between Doncaster and Longchamp, after already playing a straight bat on his next target, he said: “If I knew what the ground was going to be like in Paris... it’s likely to be slower than today.
“If it’s dry at Doncaster, that’s also a factor. They are two very prestigious races. Obviously one is world-renowned, the other is very prestigious to a Yorkshire-born English trainer and owner."
That’s all well and good, but owner George Waud, producer and director of films such as Snakes On A Plane and Terminal, looked to be already thinking of booking his plane ticket to the Bois de Boulogne as he tipped his hat and said: “I do like France.”
And so does Maltese Cross. Already proven at Longchamp after his Houdini act in the Grand Prix de Paris, he’s clearly a strong stayer at a mile and a half and getting better all the time, giving him strong credentials for the Paris showpiece. The ground might not be perfect for him in Paris (too soft) - but you could say the same about Doncaster - and it could be he's more versatile than connections fear.
After the Juddmonte International threw up more questions than answers, certainly when it comes to Constitution River at least, Maltese Cross was suddenly the 10/1 third favourite for the Arc, the shortest price of all the UK and Irish-trained colts.
With a possible stallion career in mind – and after his last two runs, connections must be thinking that way now – it has to be the Arc, the St Leger a platform for National Hunt stallions only in a Flat racing world that’s (mainly) all about speed.
Haggas has won neither the St Leger nor the Arc before, but he was a short neck from landing the latter when Sea Of Class was second to Enable in 2018, and he might never get a better chance of triumphing in the Longchamp highlight.
Maltese Cross does head the St Leger betting at 3/1, but a better bet might be Pierre Bonnard at 5/1, given everything he does screams the extended 1m6f trip in the final Classic of the season. He ran well in second today.
That’s on the proviso Maltese Cross heads to Longchamp, though. And for all that Haggas said the right things so as not to upset the Doncaster executives, Paris in the autumn will surely be the course he takes as the season builds to its climax.
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