History awaits Jimmy Choux

Derby preview by Richard Edmunds
It's been a long time since any horse did what Hawke's Bay's Jimmy Choux is going to try to do tomorrow.
Last time it happened, New Zealand held the Rugby World Cup, the Soviet Union existed and Margaret Thatcher was the British prime minister. It was 1990, 21 years ago, and the horse was Surfers Paradise. Since then, no horse has won both the New Zealand 2000 Guineas and New Zealand Derby.
That shows just how rare and exceptional a feat Jimmy Choux is attempting tomorrow. And the fact that Surfers Paradise later won the Cox Plate shows what sort of illustrious company he's trying to join. It makes it sound a little like the odds are against the John Bary-trained colt. But in all those years that have passed since it was last achieved, very few horses have come close to having the sort of season that Jimmy Choux has compiled. He's won five stakes races, and his last three victories in a row have been astonishingly and increasingly easy. In his last start, the Waikato Guineas, it was bordering on arrogance - he pricked his ears and eased down to a canter in the last 100m, yet still no one gained any ground on him.
Even passionate believers in other runners in tomorrow's Derby at Ellerslie will admit they do not have the best horse in the race. In terms of talent and ability, Jimmy Choux is miles ahead.
But what makes the Derby such a tough race is that it requires so much more than ability to win. The 2400-metre distance is one some of these horses will run only once in their career, and 2400m around the undulating Ellerslie circuit is a gruelling, testing task. You often see very high-class horses passed in a couple of strides by one-paced stayers who would never beat those other horses in a pure sprint. So while no one doubts Jimmy's superiority, the only remaining question is his stamina.
Thorn Park was a sprinter, and there's little on the dam side to suggest he'll perform over a staying distance. But his pedigree suggests that 1600m would probably be too far, and he's already won three stakes races over that distance, and his ridiculously easy Waikato Guineas romp over 2000m further defied his pedigree.
When you consider that neither his dam nor her first two foals managed to even win a maiden race, it shows just how inaccurate predicting a horse's performance from its pedigree can be. If he performed only to the level his pedigree suggested he should, Jimmy Choux should have been running in maiden company at Wairoa last month. Instead, he's the Derby favourite. He has defied his pedigree in terms of his level of racing ability and there's no reason why he can't do the same in terms of his stamina.
The fact that Jimmy Choux is lining up in the race is an endorsement of the decision to shift the Derby from its traditional Boxing Day date to the first Saturday in March. There's no way Jimmy Choux could have been ready to run 2400m on December 26, especially when you consider the cardiac arrhythmia he suffered in the Levin Classic on November 26. But with the Derby in March, we get the chance to see one of the best three-year-olds of the last decade chase a historic double.
Jimmy Choux is already one of Hawke's Bay's greatest racehorses. A win in tomorrow's Derby should see him go down as one of the region's sporting legends - and secure him a place in New Zealand racing history.