York: Pride Of Arras stakes Derby claims with impressive Dante Stakes performance with The Lion In Winter unplaced
Pride Of Arras remained unbeaten with an impressive performance to land the Dante Stakes at York and Ralph Beckett and Rossa Ryan can now dream of Epsom glory with a colt who has established himself worthy of a place in the Derby line-up
Thursday 15 May 2025 17:03, UK
Pride Of Arras caused a real upset in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes as The Lion In Winter was soundly beaten at York.
The Lion In Winter was the ante-post Derby favourite and was expected to take a step towards the Classic at York, but after wrestling with Ryan Moore in the early stages, the 8/11 market leader never seemed to land a blow and finished unplaced.
Instead it was Pride Of Arras, ridden by Rossa Ryan and trained by Ralph Beckett, who came to the fore with a length-and-a-quarter triumph at odds of 18/1, with 16/1 shot Damysus second and Wimbledon Hawkeye third.
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Beckett said: "I think that was everything I hoped for and more.
"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."
Beckett saddled Bluestocking to finish a narrow second in the 2023 Irish Oaks and win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe last season, while Westover was third in the Derby at Epsom the previous year before going on to land the Irish version.
The trainer thinks it is hard to compare those Juddmonte runners with Pride Of Arras, but feels the son of New Bay merits a crack at the Classic.
He added: "He's worthy of his place [in the Derby]. It's difficult to say he's like my other Classic horses. I've trained for Mrs Aykroyd all my career and this is a home bred. He's not a Westover, he's not Bluestocking. He has a good back pedigree but not the profile of those, if you like.
"But in saying that, he has more speed than Westover, he's a better workhorse than he was.
"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?"
