The imperious Shergar and Harzand bookended the late Aga Khan IV’s five Epsom Derby winners and on Saturday Midak can provide a poignant win in the race this year named in his honour.
Adding to the potential for a fairytale, Midak is prominent French trainer Francis Graffard’s first runner in the race considered to be the ‘blue riband’ of flat racing.
The Aga Khan, for decades a leading owner/breeder of thoroughbreds and whose grandfather Aga Khan III also won the Derby five times, died aged 88 in February.
Graffard, 48, says it is coincidental the “historic” Aga Khan colours, of green top with red epaulettes and a green cap will be represented.
Midak impressed Graffard so much he persuaded Aga Khan Studs to pay £75,000 ($101,500) to supplement him on Monday for the race.
“When I came up with the idea of entering him I did not know it was being renamed in his honour,” he told AFP in a phone interview.
“Circumstances have colluded, it is great.
“So it makes me even more excited. Definitely makes the fact Midak is running even more special.
“They are prestigious and historic racing colours.”
Graffard said triumphing at his first attempt would be magical for the Aga Khan’s family.
“Yes, you dream about these days,” he said.
“However, we know how hard it is to win Group One races, especially a Derby.
“It is my first runner in the race, we will learn plenty of things and hopefully come back in the future.”
He will face 18 rivals as he bids to become only the fourth French winner of the Derby in the past 60 years — the greatest of them all, Sea Bird, triumphing in 1965.
Graffard has won one classic for Aga Khan Studs this season, Zarigana benefitting from Shes Perfect’s disqualification in the French 1000 Guineas, prompting unsavoury behaviour from the latter’s owners who yelled “It’s a joke” at the Aga Khan’s daughter Princess Zahra as she was interviewed.
‘Little bit crazy’
Graffard, 54, has been heavily involved in the racing operation for many years.
Although he was assistant trainer for a couple of years to Alain de Royer Dupre, the Aga’s principal trainer until he retired in 2021, his encounters with him were rare.
“No, unfortunately I only met him twice,” said Graffard.
“I would have loved to have gone racing with him and learned from his experience.
“However, Princess Zahra is very experienced and it is really interesting to make plans with her.”
This teamwork has resulted in them entering Midak and pitting their wits against Delacroix — bidding to give Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien a record-extending 11th winner — and father/son partnership John and Thady Gosden’s Damysus.
Midak might never have even been a contender given that Graffard at one point considered gelding, or castrating, him — geldings are barred from running in the Derby — owing to his “tricky temperament”.
“He was really difficult to train,” said Graffard.
“But I decided I would take him to the races before I resorted to (gelding) and see how he fared.
“In his second race at Chantilly he was very green and jumped the road crossing the track, but he ended up winning nicely.”
Things went smoother on his last start, winning the Group Three Prix Greffulhe, the same race that Pour Moi, France’s last winner of the Derby in 2011, also captured.
“He ran much more professionally,” said Graffard. “He is basically improving all the time.”
Graffard says this season has only underlined that he made the right decision in opting to become a trainer rather than pursuing a career as a lawyer.
“It is a little bit crazy to think in the next fortnight we have two runners at Epsom then the Prix Diane and after that Royal Ascot,” he said.
“It is the dream job.”
