Camille Pissarro was given a fine ride by Ryan Moore to provide trainer Aidan O’Brien with his second Qatar Prix du Jockey Club.
From a position on the inside rail, his pilot had to be patient once the race started to unfold up the home straight, but Moore found the gaps at the right time to deliver his mount.
Andre Fabre’s Cualificar kept on for second ahead of John and Thady Gosden’s Detain. The winner’s stablemate Trinity College finished fourth after being up with pace alongside the Clarehaven-trained Bowmark for the majority of the contest.
O’Brien said: “I’m delighted for everybody and Ryan gave him an incredible ride.
“He’s very exciting and he’s a Group One winner at two and now he’s a French Derby winner and we all know how important they are.
“Ryan was prepared to wait today and had to ride him to try to get the trip, which was an unknown. Obviously Ryan had a lovely draw and different to the Guineas where he was wide all the way.
“We thought he was a top-class horse last year and he went to the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot as our number one horse.
“He is a big, powerful horse and was obviously a bit weak and then progressed as the year went on. He’s got a big frame – a big, rangy horse with a lovely mind and it takes a very good horse to keep taking his training, as he was growing last year and at the same time running one big race after another.
“We thought he was just getting there but getting a little bit tired previously. But he was always a special individual and showed the ability of a top-class Group One horse.
“We saw it on Arc day and we saw it again when he ran in the French Guineas and Christophe [Soumillon, jockey] said no problem, take him to the French Derby. It was lovely ground here, Ryan was over the moon when he saw the draw and Ryan gave him a masterclass.”
Moore added: “He was very straightforward and I thought we had a lovely stall. He began nicely and relaxed into a rhythm and I was able to make ground smoothly from halfway.
“We got quite strung out but he was very smooth and I just had to show a bit of patience, wait for the run to present itself, then took it.
“It was a very smart performance from a horse who just seems to be getting better.
“He’s always been a good-looking horse and highly thought of. I just wasn’t getting it quite right on him and Christophe has shown me how to ride him and he recommended this race and it all worked out beautifully.”
Camille Pissarro joins O’Brien’s St Mark’s Basilica on the Chantilly roll of honour, with the Ballydoyle handler minded to keep options open for the future, admitting he would not be against a return to a mile.
O’Brien added: “He’s a perfectly proportioned son of Wootton Bassett and although a mile and a quarter is obviously fine, I think going back to a mile would be no problem for him.
“We go from race to race and find out every two weeks how the horses are. It’s then we decide what plan to make and we go with the flow. You can’t be sure this horse would get a mile and a half but he obviously is a class horse.”
