The most prestigious race of the All-Weather Championships, the £100,000 BetUK Winter Derby, will be staged at Southwell this afternoon for the second time.
The inaugural running of the Group 3 showpiece on our Tapeta track was won 12 months ago by Charlie Appleby’s Godolphin-owned Military Order. Rated 109, he edged out favourite and previous year’s winner Lord North under jockey Danny Tudhope to score by a length.
Run over an extra furlong since switching from Lingfield Park, the one mile, three-furlong Winter Derby has been won by some classy horses since Philip Mitchell’s Running Stag took the first ever running under top jockey Ray Cochrane in 1998.
Until moving to Southwell, the middle-distance showpiece had been staged at Lingfield Park but was still a conditions race when the son of Cozzene beat Refuse To Lose en route to a successful career in The States, where he took his career earnings past £1 million.
The following year the race was awarded Listed status when Peter Harris’s Supreme Sound obliged for Gary Bardwell, while Frankie Dettori, who has become the winning most jockey, took back-to-back renewals in 2003 and 2004 on David Loder’s Parasol and fellow Italian Luigi Camici’s Caluki.
Jamie Spencer became the first winner of the Winter Derby as a Group 3 when he scored on Sylvester Kirk’s Sri Diamond in 2006 before the race began to attract even higher quality performers. Indeed, in 2010 Tranquil Tiger made history when he became the highest rated winner of the race at that stage off 112. The son of Selkirk justified favouritism under Tom Queally to give the late Sir Henry Cecil his only success in it.
In 2014, the Winter Derby became the jewel in the crown of the inaugural All-Weather Championships as Robin Hood’s Bay gave owner Alan Pickering, trainer Ed Vaughan and a young Luke Morris the glory.
Godolphin claimed their first victory in the race in 2015 when Adam Kirby scored on Tryster for Charlie Appleby before following up a year later on Marco Botti’s popular Middle-Distance star Grendisar.
John Gosden is the most successful trainer in its history. He’s won the race four times in the last six years with Wissahickon, Dubai Warrior, Forest Of Dean and last year’s runner-up Lord North. Two of those successes were executed by Dettori but it was stable stalwart Robert Havlin who masterminded Lord North’s success in 2023 off a record-high mark of 118.
The Winter Derby will again be complemented by the Listed Hever Sprint Stakes, which also switched from Lingfield last year. The five-furlong dash was won by the Clive Cox-trained Diligent Harry, who had previously taken the Listed Kachy Stakes at Lingfield.
Jockey Neil Callan is the winning most rider with three successes, the latest on dual winner Arganil in 2010, while Hollie Doyle has twice been successful on Gorgeous Noora in 2019 and One Night Stand three years later.
By Simon Mapletoft
