Road To Paris beat stablemate Autumn Glory in the New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie on March 7. Photo / Kenton Wright
The King of the Derby took the cover off Road To Paris yesterday and smiled.
Because Roger James knew the New Zealand Derby winner is where he needs to be before heading to Sydney next week.
Road To Paris will not only be trying for a Derby double at Randwick on Saturday week but could also be attempting to break a two-year drought for New Zealand-trained Group 1 winners in Australia.
The last one was Orchestral, who won the Vinery Stakes in 2024 for James and training partner Robert Wellwood, although Belle Cheval gets first crack at being the drought-breaker in that same race at Rosehill this Saturday.
Road To Paris’s ATC Derby hopes have been improved by last Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas winner Autumn Boy not being asked to try 2400m, so the Cambridge galloper finds himself in a Derby his best form would make him very competitive in, albeit VRC Derby winner Observer will be far from a pushover.
So can he be in his best form without a race for a four weeks?
“I am sure he can,” James said.
“I just took his rug off and had a good look over him and he is exactly where he needs to be.”
Road To Paris will go to Randwick having not raced since his Ellerslie triumph, which was the seventh New Zealand Derby winner James has trained, two of them in partnership with Wellwood.
“I am not worried about the month between runs, we have kept the work up to him and he will be fit enough,” James said.
“We will work 2000m again either tomorrow [Wednesday] on Thursday, depending on the weather forecast, as ideally we like to do that work on the plough but with rain coming, it might get closed.
“Then depending when that gallop is, he can go again on Saturday or Monday and fly over on Tuesday.”
James has revealed he and Wellwood didn’t need to chase champion Hong Kong jockey Zac Purton, who will ride Road To Paris in the Derby, as his Australian representatives contacted them.
“It is great to have Zac on and we are looking forward to getting over there because he has already proven he is a Derby horse.”
The stable heads into the busy next week in a red-hot patch of form, sitting fourth on the premiership with 37 wins worth over $3.2 million in stakes and, just as importantly, the best strike rate of the major trainers in the country with a win every 5.59 starts.
“It has been a very satisfying year and that strike rate is really important to us,” James said.
“They are results we are very proud of, considering the size of our team, but we’d like some more over the next few weeks.”
The stable has winning chances in both Group 1s at Trentham this Saturday, with She’s A Dealer in the $600,000 Sport Nation Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes and two reps, Excite and St Monica, in the $550,000 Courtesy Ford Manawatū Sires’ Produce Stakes.
“Usually we wouldn’t rush a mare like She’s A Dealer into a weight-for-age race but we think she is good enough,” James said.
“She has been racing at a very high level and should have won the Cuddle Stakes last start and if she had won, giving her a shot at this Group 1 would have been a no-brainer.
“So we are treating it as she did win and giving her her chance.”
It is even rarer for James and Wellwood’s barn to have two juveniles in a Group 1 and James says they are very different types.
“Excite is very strong and up for a race like this so he has to go whereas the filly [St Monica] is a very different type, a bit more fragile and we are sure she will be better at 3.
“But she is also very talented and it is a Group 1, so she deserves her shot after her fresh-up win.”
Saturday’s Trentham meeting hosts five black-type races to end the Group 1 part of the season on a high.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.