Colin Keane has his first classic ride as first jockey to the powerful Juddmonte operation when teaming up with Better Together in Sunday’s French Oaks.
The €1 million Longines Prix De Diane will have Ireland’s champion jockey come under the eagle eye of France’s most successful ever trainer, André Fabre.
The 79-year-old maestro, sometimes referred to as racing’s Little Napoleon, has been known to be quite a taskmaster. Pat Eddery once nominated Fabre as a particularly difficult trainer to ride for.
Eddery was the first retained jockey for the late Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte team almost 40 years ago, and earlier this week it was confirmed Keane is filling a similarly expansive European role. It is already making for a busy schedule.
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Having ridden work on some Royal Ascot contenders in Newmarket on Wednesday morning, he rode a double at Limerick that evening. On Thursday, he was in Newbury and rode in Cork on Friday evening. He has four rides in Sandown on Saturday before heading to Chantilly.
Keane’s sole Group One victory in France to date was on Broome in the 2021 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and he is relatively inexperienced around Chantilly.
Better Together was ridden by Alexis Pouchin to win a Listed and a Group Three before finishing fifth in last month’s French Guineas.
That contest could hold the key to the Diane outcome with the English filly, She’s Perfect, controversially disqualified from first in favour of Zaragina, going in search of classic compensation.
“I just think it’s the right race for her, basically we had the option between the Diane and the Coronation,” said She’s Perfect’s trainer, Charlie Fellowes. “We want her to win the right race – it has nothing to do with the fact that it is in France, it was very plain and simple, I’m convinced this is the right race to run her and I just hope she will prove me right on Sunday.”
A field of 12 lines up for the prestigious classic where the red-hot Aidan O’Brien runs both Bedtime Story (Ryan Moore) and Merrily, the mount of last weekend’s Epsom Derby hero, Wayne Lordan. The race is off at 3.05pm Irish time and is on Sky.
Moore memorably got the luck of the draw in the Prix Du Jockey Club a fortnight ago on Camille Pissarro but is now berthed widest of all on Bedtime Story. She ran sixth in the Pouliches, where Merrily was last.
O’Brien won the French Oaks four years ago with Joan Of Arc and his current streak of classic success means Bedtime Story won’t be dismissed by anyone despite her draw.
The Irish man is chasing a third French classic this season on the back of Henri Matisse also winning the 2000 Guineas at Longchamp. O’Brien completed the Oaks-Derby double at Epsom last week and won the Irish 1000 Guineas with Lake Victoria.
Keane will also ride Juddmonte’s Latakia in the following Listed contest (4.25pm) for trainer Francis Henri Graffard.
The Irish man’s new post looks to have thrown open the race to be champion jockey in Ireland this year.
Billy Lee has been runner-up to Keane for the last three years, including being edged out by just three winners (92-89) in 2022. He has been made an odds-on favourite (8/11) by Paddy Power to take advantage of his rival’s absences.
Prior to Friday evening’s action, Lee trailed Keane 36 to 30 and has four rides at Gowran on Sunday.
The weekend action in Ireland and Britain is marked by a relative lull before next week’s Royal Ascot extravaganza, where Aidan O’Brien is favourite to once again be crowned leading trainer.
He has won the award eight times in the last decade and is closing in on a remarkable century of winners at the world-famous meeting. O’Brien has 91 career successes there; his best individual haul in a week was seven winners in 2016.
O’Brien has a record nine victories in the Gold Cup, including an unprecedented four-timer for Yeats. The retirement of his former dual-champion Kyprios has opened the door to a new staying star and next Thursday’s field will come from 10 possibles left in at Friday’s acceptance stage.
They include Ballydoyle’s potential next top-notcher, Illinois, a winner at Chester last time, although he is likely to face a formidable French challenger in Candelari, a Group One victor at Longchamp on his last start.
National Hunt action once again dominates this weekend’s domestic programme with Downpatrick racing back-to-back. Up to 12mm of rain is forecast in advance of Saturday’s card.
