CHESTER VASE FAMOUS WINNERS

As we celebrate another year of the Boodles May Festival, we look back at some of the most memorable winners of the Chester Vase who were successful on the Roodee before going on to Derby glory at Epsom.

In the early years of the Vase, the great Hyperion was successful on the Roodee in 1933.

Bred by Lord Derby, he was small in size but enjoyed a strong juvenile campaign as he broke the course record at Ascot in the New Stakes before landing the Dewhurst. The colt had not grown much before his three-year-old season, which he began here at Chester with a two lengths victory in the Vase. That performance saw him start as favourite for the Derby and he landed the Classic in fine style, lowering the track record in the process.

Hyperion would then go on to win the Prince of Wales’s at Royal Ascot and he became a dual Classic winner with success in the St Leger.

1980 and 1981 saw back-to-back winners of the Vase follow up in the Derby, with the American-bred Henbit gaining Classic glory at Epsom at the start of the decade. Trained by Dick Hern, he won the Classic Trial at Sandown before arriving at Chester in May. It was a strong renewal of the Vase and he comfortably made all under Willie Carson, with the subsequent Leger winner Light Cavalry back in third. In his subsequent run at Epsom,

Henbit provided the trainer and jockey combination with consecutive wins in the Derby after Troy had won a year earlier.

The following year we saw a spectacular performance in the Vase by one of the most famous horses in modern history. The legendary Shergar had won the same Sandown race as Henbit by ten lengths to start off his three-year-old campaign and then was brought to Chester by trainer Michael Stoute. The colt delivered another emphatic victory as he won on the Roodee by twelve lengths, which saw him sent off as the odds-on favourite for the Derby.

Ridden by nineteen-year-old Walter Swinburn who was having his first experience of the Classic, he made his move around Tattenham Corner before pulling effortlessly clear of his rivals to record a ten lengths success eased down. The winning margin remains a record for the race and Shergar would go on to further Derby success in the Irish equivalent before getting the better of his elders in the King George at Ascot.

In more recent times, leading Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien has built up an excellent record in the Chester Vase as he targets his lightly-raced Derby candidates at the race to prepare them for Epsom. In 2013, Ruler Of The World had not run as a two-year-old and only made his debut a month prior to the May Festival. He won the Vase by an impressive six lengths and the experience of the Roodee track helped the son of Galileo progress to become a Derby winner on just his third career start. His latest success in this prestigious Group 3 came last year when Changingoftheguard comfortably sweeped aside the opposition, winning by six and a half lengths before going on to win the King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot that June.