Irish Horses Running in France This Weekend The Prix du Jockey Club, aka the French Derby takes place this weekend at Chantilly Racecourse, and it will be very interesting to see how the three Aidan O'Brien runners get on. It looks like a hot race this year, and we have seen some impressive winners of the French Derby in recent years go on and claim even higher-profile races, such as St Mark's Basilica and Look De Vega. Starting off, we have a horse who is favourite in Constitution River, who will be ridden by Ryan Moore for trainer Aidan O'Brien. Constitution River was the subject of a big market move for the Epsom Derby, but he has been confirmed for the French Derby instead. A potential problem for Constitution River comes from the fact that he is drawn in stall number 15. In the last 10 years, horses drawn this wide have not won the race, which is not a good record to look at. But considering the class of the horse, if he is able to jump out and get a nice position early on, he will be the one coming home the quickest, as he was an impressive winner of the Dee Stakes. He is a fascinating runner in this contest. The next horse in the Irish contingent is Hawk Mountain. He progressed through the ranks all last season, winning the Beresford Stakes, which was a Group 2, before then going on to win the William Hill Futurity Stakes, which was a Group 1, before returning to Chantilly in May and winning a Derby trial. He looked surprisingly green on that occasion, and he was somewhat difficult to navigate around the bend, but he is a high-class horse and looks like one that has progressed through the ranks in Ballydoyle and developed into a top contender for this race. He is also a nice spare ride for jockey Christophe Soumillon to pick up. The last of the Aidan O'Brien runners in the race is a horse called Montreal. Montreal was talked up a lot over the winter. He was third on his debut at Leopardstown last season before returning there again and winning a maiden by eight lengths. That was the last we saw of him until the end of April, when he went to Chantilly for a trial himself and was headed just on the line after making the running that day. He is a 20/1 shot in this weekend’s race, but Wayne Lordan seems to be having great luck in these big races, and it would not surprise anyone if he went and won it. Donnacha O'Brien, son of Aidan O'Brien, who has a large number of talented horses in his yard, has given the opportunity to A Boy Named Susie to take his chance in the French Derby. A Boy Named Susie was third in the Ballysax Stakes behind Christmas Day and Endorsement, and some of his earlier form is quite good. He was always highly tried in Group races, so he certainly could have an outside squeak. Moving on from the French Derby, we come to the Prix de Sandringham, a Group 2 event for fillies, where the Joseph O'Brien-trained Green Sense will take her chance. She won a Group 2 at this course under Maxime Guyon last July before finishing a decent third in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes back on home soil a month later. Her final two-year-old start was an underwhelming mid-division finish in a valuable sales race. She is a beautifully-bred daughter of Starman, who looks the type to make into a top contender this year as a three-year-old, so it will be interesting to see how she fares for her in-form yard on seasonal debut on Sunday.
