Horse Racing Betting: Donn McClean’s Three Of The Best Futurity Trophy Winners

In this article, Donn McClean delves into the rich history of the Futurity Trophy and highlights three exceptional champions that left an indelible mark on the race.

Throughout the article, McClean carefully selects and profiles three standout winners, recounting their thrilling victories, unique characteristics, and the lasting impact they've had on the sport. 

Readers are treated to a blend of nostalgia and admiration for these remarkable equine athletes.

Ahead of the Futurity Trophy where you will find the best odds available on betting sites, we take a look back at three of the greatest winners in the history of the race.

High Chaparral, 2001

High Chaparral wasn’t favourite for the 2001 Kameko Futurity Trophy, the Racing Post Trophy as it was then. He wasn’t even the shortest-priced runner in the race from his yard.

Aidan O’Brien had won the Futurity Trophy just twice before 2001, he had won two of the previous four renewals with Aristotle and Saratoga Springs respectively, and he fielded three of the six runners in 2001. 

Unsurprisingly, it was Castle Gandolfo, the Gone West colt who had won the Beresford Stakes by seven lengths, who was sent off as favourite, odds-on favourite. But High Chaparral did not go unbacked and, ultimately, it was backers of the Sadler’s Wells colt who were rewarded.

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The ground was heavy on Futurity Trophy day in 2001 and Kevin Darley settled High Chaparral at the rear early on, sixth of the six-runner field as they came up the home straight against the inside rail.

The rider angled his horse to the right as they passed the three-furlong marker, followed his stable companion Castle Gandolfo through as he made his ground up on the outside of runners.

Castle Gandolfo hit the front on the run to the two-furlong marker, and looked the likely winner. But High Chaparral dug deep and, switched to the inside, stayed on bravely against the far rail to get up and win by three parts of a length, the two stable companions well clear of their rivals.

We didn’t know it then, but that was just a springboard for High Chaparral.

The following year, as a three-year-old, he won the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial and the Derby – leading home a Ballydoyle 1-2 in the Derby too, with his better-fancied stable companion Hawk Wing chasing him home – before coming back to The Curragh and adding the Irish Derby. 

He also finished third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, before going to Arlington Park and winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Kept in training at four, the Sadler’s Wells colt won the Royal Whip Stakes before landing a deep renewal of the Irish Champion Stakes, one of the best.

Third in the Arc for the second successive year, he rounded off his career by bagging another Breeders’ Cup Turf, dead-heating with Johar, thereby becoming the first horse – and one of only two horses to date – to win the race twice.

Authorized, 2006

The 2006 Futurity Trophy was run at Newbury, not at Doncaster, and it was won by a maiden, not a Group race winner.

Authorized had been beaten on his only previous run, in the Haynes, Hanson & Clark Conditions Stakes, also at Newbury, over the Futurity course and distance, just over a month earlier.

He had run well in defeat that day, he had led two furlongs out and was only headed inside the final furlong, but he was up against Group race winners Eagle Mountain and Thousand Words and others in the Futurity Trophy, so it wasn’t wholly surprising that he was allowed go off at a big price.

Peter Chapple-Hyam’s horse didn’t go through his race like an outsider, mind you. Held up in rear early on, he always travelled well for Frankie Dettori.

He made good ground from two furlongs out, hit the front at the furlong marker and went on to win by just over a length, leaving the impression that he had more in hand than the bare winning margin.

Frankie Dettori’s first Futurity Trophy winner – 31 years after his dad Gianfranco had won the race on Take Your Place for Henry Cecil – Authorized would also go on to be the effervescent Italian’s first Epsom Derby winner the following June, following in the footsteps of High Chaparral and Motivator and making it three Futurity Trophy winners in six years who went on to win the Derby at three.

Authorized won the Dante before he won the Derby, and he finished second in the Eclipse and won the Juddmonte International after he won the Derby, before finishing down the field when sent off a short-priced favourite for the Arc on his final run.

Camelot, 2011

In contrast to Authorized, Camelot was sent off as a short-priced favourite for the 2011 Futurity Trophy, an odds-on favourite. Indeed, Camelot raced 10 times in his life, and he was sent off as favourite 10 times.

Just one of those runs was before the 2011 Futurity, a maiden at Leopardstown for which he was sent of at 1/3, and which he duly won with impressively. 

And he was just as impressive in the Futurity. Two and a quarter lengths was the official verdict, but he won as easily as he liked under Joseph O’Brien.

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Aidan O’Brien’s colt came mighty close to completing the Triple Crown the following year, as close as any horse had (or has) come since Nijinsky.

He won the Guineas by a neck on easy ground, he won the Derby by five lengths on fast ground, and he won the Irish Derby on heavy ground by two lengths.

The Triple Crown talk had gathered momentum by the time the St Leger rolled around in September, the bridge to Nijinsky 41 years earlier. 

Alas, it wasn’t to be, but the Montjeu colt was gallant in defeat, going down by three parts of a length in the end to Encke, the pair of them clear of their rivals.