Plenty has changed in the Thoroughbred landscape, but that "piece of wood" at Epsom Downs Racecourse is still just about the most significant barometer of excellence around.
Federico Tesio's famous quote may not be as universally adhered to as was once the case, with commercial imperative making speed and precocity increasingly desirable traits.
For better or for worse? It really is a matter of perspective. But surely we can all agree that juvenile sprints will never test the full package of speed, stamina, athleticism, and mental fortitude the way the Epsom Derby (G1) does.
With the traditional trials now in the formbook, we are that bit nearer to finding out who possesses that elusive range of sought-after attributes. Some reputations have been enhanced and others diminished, but, hopefully, we've all learned a little along the way.
Looking at the ante-post market now that the dust has settled, there is a sense that we're going back to the future.
The 1970s in particular saw a flurry of Derby winners with roots in North America. Think famous names such as Nijinsky (1970), Mill Reef (1971), Roberto (1972), and The Minstrel (1977).
Winners bearing the USA suffix have been much less frequent in recent times, thanks in no small part to John Magnier introducing the Northern Dancer sire line to Europe through Sadler's Wells and his sons, most notably Galileo and Montjeu.
Indeed, there was a 21-year gap between Kris Kin, a United States-bred son of Kris S, winning in 2003 through to last year's hero, City of Troy. But, with the trials in the rearview mirror, American blood is front and center once again.
The Two Thousand Guineas (G1) hero Ruling Court was bred in Kentucky and now carries the Godolphin blue after a cosmopolitan upbringing that took in a spell in Ireland before his sale to Sheikh Mohammed in France. He will bid to give all-American sire sensation Justify a second successive Derby win.
While Ruling Court's sire is indisputably American, the colt's pedigree is more of a melting pot. His dam is a British-bred High Chaparral sister to Johann Strauss, albeit she has spent long enough in Kentucky to qualify for her own green card.
Ruling Court has achieved the most in form terms, but the market marginally prefers the claims of Delacroix. Not only does his stamina appear more assured at this stage, having careered away with the Leopardstown Derby Trial Stakes (G3), his broader upward trajectory is underpinned by a true blue-chip pedigree.
The Coolmore homebred was born in Ireland and is by Dubawi, for whom the Derby remains a notable omission on an otherwise exemplary stud record. He is, however, out of a mare that is about as American as a baseball player eating a cheeseburger while driving a pickup truck.
Delacroix is the fourth foal out of Tepin, a daughter of Bernstein who won six elite-level races during her own racing days and was twice champion grass mare in the U.S. Although she was undoubtedly at her best on grass, she also won a grade 3 on the Delta Downs dirt at 2.
Tepin has already shown what can happen as a result of some transatlantic ambition, as trainer Mark Casse sent her to Royal Ascot in 2016, where she got the better of Belardo to win the Queen Anne Stakes (G1).
There will be a certain degree of poetic irony should either Delacroix or Ruling Court win, as the Coolmore colt is by Godolphin's linchpin stallion, while Sheikh Mohammed's color-bearer is by his old rival's emerging super sire. Who could have foreseen that possibility in the not too distant past?
History shows how important cross-pollination has been to the betterment of the breed. You need look no further than the effect Nasrullah and sons of Northern Dancer had after traversing the Atlantic in opposite directions. Maybe we are about to witness a renaissance for this global approach.
Plainly no expense has been spared as Coolmore and Godolphin have added American brawn to their respective ranks.
Ruling Court set a well-documented European breeze-up sale record when bringing €2.3 million (US$2,477,404) in Deauville last May. But even that unprecedented sum is a mere snip compared to the US$8 million M.V. Magnier paid for Tepin back in 2017 at Fasig-Tipton's The November Sale.
How do you compete with that sort of financial firepower? Trust a Yorkshireman to have the answer.
We've all heard of David versus Goliath. Well, so far as this year's Derby goes, it turns out David is in fact David Aykroyd, who bred impressive Dante Stakes winner Pride of Arras with his wife, Vimy.
Not only did the Aykroyds' homebred get the better of representatives from racing's powerhouses, both new and old, but they did so without breaking the bank when it came to paying for a nomination.
Pride of Arras is from the fifth crop of Ballylinch Stud's New Bay. While the son of Dubawi has spent three years standing at €75,000, the Aykroyds weren't to know that when they sent Parnell's Dream to Ireland in 2021, when the stallion was available at a more routine price point of €20,000.
And that wasn't the Aykroyds' first wise investment, either, as Pride of Arras's granddam, Kitty O'Shea, was a private acquisition from Coolmore around a decade and a half ago. It may have taken a couple of generations to reap their reward, but patience has always been a virtue when it comes to matters of the turf.
It may not have influenced this particular outcome, but David Aykroyd also understands the value of a transatlantic outlook. He part-owned Althea, the U.S. champion 2-year-old filly in 1983 who trained on to beat her male counterparts in the following year's Arkansas Derby (G1). By gum.
Beyond the chief protagonists, the potential Derby field contains plenty of the usual suspects. Eleven more from the Ballydoyle-Coolmore axis, four from Juddmonte, and three further Godolphin representatives. There are five colts by Frankel , a quartet of Dubawis, and eight by his sire sons. You get the picture.
Then there's Al Wasl Storm. Some spend a lifetime pouring over pedigrees, scouring the sales and parting with significant pots of cash trying to unearth a Derby candidate. But owner Ahmad Al Shaikh simply logged on during the 2022 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale and bid €7,000 to secure a son of Affinisea out of a Martaline mare.
Okay, he may be 100-1 for Epsom on the first weekend in June. But, given his breeding screams Cheltenham Festival rather than Derby weekend, some experts would have made him longer odds to even run on the flat, nevermind run out a convincing winner of a warm Chester maiden. But here we are. Experts, what do they know?
The only rules in this game are: there are no rules. Ultimately all that matters is who passes the "piece of wood" first.
