By Tom Frary
All eyes were on the returning Pierre Bonnard in Sunday's G3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes, but it was another of Ballydoyle's sons of Camelot who stepped forward into the Derby picture in Christmas Day. While the former showed how short of a peak he was in a lethargic seventh, last year's G3 Eyrefield Stakes winner delivered under Wayne Lordan to cause an 11-1 upset at the chief expense of another stablemate in Endorsement (Wootton Bassett).
Aidan O'Brien had warned before the established Derby trial that last year's Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Pierre Bonnard would need the comeback and could be “vulnerable” and that proved the case, with Ryan Moore unable to make an impact in the straight. “The race broke into two halves and was a little bit stop-start,” the Ballydoyle conditioner explained. “Ryan said he would have preferred to be handier and was in on the bad ground. He gave two blows and we thought that would happen. I was just worried that all the horses are needing it badly and having a blow or two, more than I expected.”
“Ryan's horse will leave the race behind him,” he stated. “We got the run into him and he'll definitely come back for the Derby Trial next month. We decided that if he was going to the Derby he needed two runs beforehand, win, lose or draw and we'll assess him properly the next day.”
Christmas Day, whose sire and dam sire both triumphed at Epsom, is bred to relish all of the mile-and-a-half of the Blue Riband and was showing how much he had come forward during the winter. “He's a smart horse, very straightforward and uncomplicated,” O'Brien added. “He's been floating along there under the radar the whole time, he had a temperature when he was going to go to France last year–he travels and quickens and he'll stay a mile and a half.”
Beaten on his first two starts behind Endorsement and the stable's subsequent Futurity Trophy runner-up Action, Christmas Day had opened his account on heavy ground at Gowran in September before beating the reliable yardstick A Boy Named Susie (Starspangledbanner) in the Eyrefield here the following month. He was also carrying a three-pound penalty this time and lengthened the margin between him and that rival in third to a length as he reeled in the front-running Endorsement in what can only be described as a solid Derby prep.
Big shake-up in the Derby market incoming! 👀
Christmas Day picks up where he left off last term by winning the Ballysax Stakes but current Derby favourite Pierre Bonnard couldn't justify his short odds. @LeopardstownRC pic.twitter.com/TbHPuFMdaZ
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 12, 2026
Pedigree Notes
Christmas Day is the fourth foal out of Sea The Stars' smart Stakes winner Beauly, whose career-best performance came when fourth in the GI Flower Bowl as a four-year-old. Her first was Missed The Cut (Quality Road), who was a triple Grade III winner at Santa Anita with two of them over a mile and a half and was also runner-up in the GII Elkhorn Stakes at that trip.
The second dam is the GIII Wilshire Handicap and GIII Yerba Buena Breeders' Cup Handicap winner Pickle (Piccolo), who was also responsible for Oasis Dream's four times Listed-winning sprinter and sire Gusto. The family includes the stable's Jersey Stakes winner and Irish 2,000 Guineas runner-up Gale Force Ten also by Oasis Dream, the Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Bianca Nera (Salse) and the Fillies' Mile and Falmouth winner Simply Perfect (Danehill). Beauly's yearling colt is by Wootton Bassett.
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