Russian Camelot took out the SA Derby today in emphatic fashion, living up to all of the hype with a 2L victory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPXi9ONczbU.

For the bulk of the trip he was wide and without cover at the tail of the field. It's his 3rd win from 5 starts and while this race was reportedly his long-term target he had a few things go wrong with his preparation. First he was scratched at the barrier 5 weeks back when his gate didn't open, then 2 weeks ago he was scratched after he was found to have an inflamed throat.

His last run was a BM64 over 1600m (which he won by 7 lengths) so it was a fair step up to the 2500m distance. Doubt over his prep likely inflated his odds somewhat and he jumped at $2.90.

Russian Camelot is also a northern hemisphere 3yo so gave away 6 months' maturity to his rivals. His trainer Danny O'Brien is looking forward to Spring but is being coy regarding a tilt at the Melbourne Cup. That hasn't stopped wider speculation though and he's currently the equal second $15 favourite at Ladbroke's (with Surprise Baby and behind the $12 fave Master of Wine).

There's also been some pie-in-the-sky thinking regarding him going back to the northern hemisphere for some racing...


Northern Hemisphere racing is a bit of a mixed bag at present. German racing was back on Thursday with no crowds and even the jockeys wearing masks as they raced. They're reportedly not allowing any foreign runners until at least May 31st.

French racing will resume this Monday behind closed doors despite word coming late last week that there was a risk it wouldn't go ahead. They're also not allowing foreign runners, this time until June 1st.

The story is not as rosy in the UK with no firm resumption date as yet. The Government is announcing the next phase of their coronavirus response on Sunday and there's hope that they will give some guidance on the return of sport, including horse racing. If they do, then British Racing is ready to go: they've already published a program for the first 7 days of racing that will be put into action as soon as they know when they can kick it off. They also have a provisional plan for black-type races. The 3yo Classics are said to be the priority with the older-horse races slotted around them. Several of the fixtures lost in early Spring are hoped to be rescheduled from - best case scenario - the last two weeks of May; many others will be abandoned entirely though. You can find the list here: https://www.britishhorseracing.com/...race-programme/

The outlook in Ireland is pretty dire with news from the Government and Horse Racing Ireland that June 29th is the intended resumption date. HRI would like a concession to start earlier but there is little expectation that will occur and many have expressed their fears of the impact on the industry.


Horse racing is, of course, far secondary to health concerns, especially in harder-hit Europe. It's interesting though what could be the repercussions on our big race later this year.