Recent Derby winners: How they fared next

The news that Auguste Rodin will remain in training as a four-year-old has prompted much excitement, but he will need to buck a worrying trend of recent Derby winners to justify that brave decision.

Aidan O’Brien’s charge is set to become the sixth straight Derby winner from Epsom to race on the following season – and things have not exactly worked out well for the previous five.

Here we take a look at how the recent Derby winners have fared:

Desert Crown

Sir Michael Stoute’s charge was a classy scorer at Epsom last year but failed to reappear that season due to injury setbacks. He made a promising return to action the following May when going down by just half a length to Hukum in the Brigadier Gerard at Sandown but then struggled to stay sound again and was sadly put down after fracturing a fetlock on the gallops.

Adayar

Godolphin’s son of Frankel stayed on strongly to romp home by four and a half lengths in the 2021 blue riband event at 16/1 and followed up with victory in the King George at Ascot becoming the first since Galileo to do the double. However, he could only land a low-key Doncaster conditions race at four before finishing second in the Champion Stakes.

At five, Adayar won the Group Three Gordon Richards Stakes at Newmarket but was then third in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and was beaten at 1/3 in Group Two company at Newmarket on his final start before retirement.

Serpentine