English/Ire
Pride Of Arras books Derby ticket with decisive Dante success
Pride Of Arras burst onto the Epsom Derby scene after making it two wins from as many starts in The Al Basti Dubai Dante Stakes at York on Thursday.
All eyes were on Aidan O'Brien's ante-post Derby favourite The Lion In Winter, who was a well-backed 8/11 market leader to make his first start since landing the Acomb Stakes here last August a winning one.
However, the writing was on the wall from some way out for those who had backed The Lion In Winter, with Ryan Moore struggling to settle his mount in the early stages.
Moore began to niggle away at his mount at the top of the straight and whilst he didn't completely capitulate, O'Brien's leading Classic fancy proved no match for his rivals in the closing stages on his reappearance, fading into sixth.
Whilst The Lion In Winter was drifting backwards through the field on the outside, Pride Of Arras was making eye-catching headway more towards the inside under Rossa Ryan, who drove his mount to the head of affairs approaching the final furlong.
John and Thady Gosden's Damysus stayed on strongly in the closing stages in an attempt to make a race of it, but he failed to match the finishing kick of Pride Of Arras, who kept on nicely to prevail by a length at odds of 18/1.
An impressive winner on his sole outing to date at Sandown in August last year, Pride Of Arras was cut to 5/1 (from 50s) by race sponsors Betfred for the Epsom Derby next month. The same firm now make Delacroix their 2/1 favourite, while they pushed The Lion In Winter out to 5/1 from 11/4.
"I think that was everything I hoped for and more," said Beckett.
"I was saying to the owner that I'd been tough on him to get him here, we had to take him away, he galloped at Lambourn about two and a half weeks ago and he'd been on the watered gallop at home several times.
"He'll come forward from today as well, when I say I was tough on him it was his lack of experience, he rolled around at Sandown before he went clear, he found experience easy in the end but through the race he wasn't finding it easy."
Despite having only had two outings to date, Beckett believes his son of New Bay has plenty of the qualities required to stand him in good stead at Epsom next month.
He added: "If he handles Epsom, which I think he will, and he handles the jamboree, which based on today I think he will, we've every right to think we're going there to be competitive.
"What happens after that, who knows?"
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