Lope de Vega ridden by Maxime Guyon won the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) at Chantilly racecourse Sunday to complete the Guineas/Derby double last achieved by Shamardal in 2005. Lope de Vega - giving trainer Andre Fabre only his second success in the race - beat home the hotly-fancied Planteur, who handed trainer Elie Lellouche his third runners-up spot in France's premier colts classic. Pain Perdu was third, rewarding trainer Nicolas Clement's bold gamble to supplement him - Behkabad under last year's winning jockey Christophe Lemaire was fourth and the Aidan O'Brien-trained Viscount Nelson was fifth. The major disappointment of the race was O'Brien's other runner and hot favorite Cape Blanco, who looked in shape having easily beaten Saturday's record-breaking Epsom Derby winner Workforce in his previous outing. However, despite taking close order early on and being given every chance in the straight he failed to quicken under Johnny Murtagh and faded leaving the 40-year-old trainer still without a winner in the race. For the German owners Gestut Amerland and especially their patriarch 68-year-old publisher and former commercial lawyer and dressage specialist Dietrich Boetticher it was a sweet moment. Five years ago Boetticher had to sit and watch the agony of his hot favorite Hurricane Run being turned over in the race by one ... Shamardal. On Sunday his new stable star more than made up for that disappointment.
