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Many great gambles have been landed in the Derby down the years, from John Bowes’ bet on his horse, West Australian, in 1853 that won the equivalent of more than £5m today, to Raymond Guest’s £500 each-way on Sir Ivor at 100-1, a few months before his victory in June 1968 as the 4-5 favourite. And the 247th running of the Epsom Classic on Saturday could see another spectacular payoff – albeit without a bookie on the other side of the bet.
Twenty months on from his three-day, £24m spending spree on yearlings at Tattersalls’ Book 1 sale in Newmarket in October 2024, the football “super-agent” Kia Joorabchian will be at Epsom to watch two of his big-money buys, Poker and Ancient Egypt, go to post for the premier Classic.
The two colts’ respective price-tags and odds already tell a story about the uncertainties of the market in high-end bloodstock.
Poker, the most expensive yearling colt ever sold at public auction in Europe, cost 4.3m gns (£4.5m), has yet to win even a novice event in three attempts, and will set off at around 200-1 to become the first maiden to win since 1887.
Ancient Egypt, though, was around a quarter of the price – and is about 185 points shorter in the betting, having won three of his four starts so far. The 2026 Derby was the main race on Joorabchian’s mind when he paid 1.1m gns (£1.2m) for the son of Frankel out of a full-sister to a Group One-winning mare, and the first Saturday in June is when his seven-figure gamble could pay off.
It has little to do with the prize money. The total purse for this year’s Derby is £2m, with around half of that paid to the winner’s connections, but that is a fairly minor consideration in the context of Joorabchian’s concerted attempt to buy his way onto the top table of international Flat racing.
It is an ambition that, in recent decades, has largely been reserved for individuals with sovereign – ie. effectively unlimited – wealth at their disposal, including members of the ruling families in Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. To compete at the same level, and complete the same virtuous loop between the racing and breeding industries that underpins John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud operation, Joorabchian needs an elite stallion – and there could be nothing more elite in the current market than a Derby-winning son of Frankel.
As Charlie Johnston, Ancient Egypt’s trainer, acknowledges, the possibilities attached to the colt’s pedigree and purchase price have been difficult to ignore since he arrived at his Middleham yard.
“You try and tell yourself that from the moment they walk through the door, they all get treated the same regardless of price tag or pedigree,” Johnston said this week, “but let’s say that, as George Orwell would say, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
“Pressure is probably the wrong word. I wasn’t made to feel under any undue pressure by Kia because of what was paid, but given the opportunity to train a horse of that pedigree and value, you want to deliver with it and try and meet the expectations that come with it.”
Johnston had trained just one previous runner for Amo Racing when Joorabchian decided to send his latest seven-figure purchase to the stable built by the trainer’s record-breaking father, Mark. Charlie’s has been the sole name on the licence since the start of 2023, and having sent 50-1 outsiders down to Epsom to finish second and seventh last year, he now hopes to become the first Yorkshire-based trainer since 1869 to saddle a Derby winner at the race’s traditional home.
“We had the first two horses home in the Derby last year that had gone through the sales ring,” Johnston says. “Everything else in the first nine or 10 was a homebred from the likes of Godolphin, Coolmre and the Aga Khan, and our two cost 80 grand for the pair.
“That’s the sort of price point that we’re generally dealing with. I’d like a yard in which horses like that weren’t the exception, but obviously it was fantastic that Kia was willing to put that sort of faith in us, and to send us a horse of that value. Obviously, at that point in his career, there were no guarantees it was money well spent, but we’re delighted that things have largely gone very well.”
A seventh-of-eight finish behind Bow Echo – this year’s 2,000 Guineas winner – in the Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket last September is the only blot on Ancient Egypt’s career to date. “In hindsight we were probably just asking him a little bit too much too soon,” Johnston says. “To ask him to jump and travel with horses with the pace of Bow Echo was always a big, big challenge at that point in his career.”
That was the last run of Ancient Egypt’s juvenile career, and he returned to action with a smooth success in the Newmarket Stakes in early May.
“There would have been time [for another run before the Derby] but I just felt he’d done enough to book his ticket for Epsom,” Johnston says.
“He’s from a very good family, and related to the likes of [six-time Group One-winner] Midday, so he’s certainly got the pedigree and the physique to be a stallion. Now we’ve just got to get him the race record to go with it.”
