The team behind the New Zealand Derby winner Jimmy Choux will be hoping he can follow in the footsteps of the last horse to win the 2000 Guineas-Derby double.
Jimmy Choux became the first horse since Surfers Paradise in 1990 to win the prestigious double when he outstayed Historian and On The Level under the urgings of Jonathan Riddell to win the NZ Derby (2400m).
Surfers Paradise would go on to win the Rosehill Guineas in Sydney later that season, a Group One race over 2000m on March 26 that trainer John Bary said was next on Jimmy Choux’s programme.
“I suppose we go to the Rosehill Guineas now against our own age group, and we can take Jonathan over to ride,” Bary said.
“If he goes good there, maybe we’ve got to go and look at the Doncaster.”
Bary said he was pleased Jimmy Choux stayed the Derby trip but indicated he was not a natural at the distance, which is why he is targeting the Doncaster Mile (1600m) on April 16, for which he will carry 51kg, rather than the Australian Derby (2400m).
“He’s not a true stayer. He’s a miler-sprinter, but $NZ2.2 million was a hell of a reason for us to stay and have a shot at the New Zealand Derby,” he said.
“He’ll probably never see 2400m again in his life but he doesn’t have to.”
Jimmy Choux has been the outstanding male three-year-old in New Zealand this season. He has won six of his last seven starts, and his only failure came when he had a heart fibrillation problem in the Levin Classic in November.
The race was another triumph for Riddell, who only switched to flat riding a few seasons ago after riding mainly over jumps until then.
So far he has won three $1 million races this season – the 2000 Guineas and Derby on Jimmy Choux and the Karaka Million on Fort Lincoln.
The 2000 Guineas-Derby double almost looked easy in the early years once New Zealand’s classics were restructured in 1973 as it was taken out three times between 1973 and 1977, but those winners were all outstanding – Fury’s Order, Balmerino and Uncle Remus.
Surfers Paradise was the only other winner of the double until Saturday, and Bary would be delighted if the similarities don’t stop with that and the Rosehill Guineas because Surfers Paradise also won the Cox Plate the following season.
NZPA AKL
