Hi Arsene, just read you Blog.
The Prix du Jockey-Club isn’t called the French Derby – it is called the Prix du Jockey-Club.
When its distance was cut from 2400m to 2100m, the distance of the Grand Prix de Paris was increased at the same time from 2000m to 2400m.
Therefore, when we use the phrase, "French Derby", I think it should now apply to the Grand Prix de Paris.
You were wanting the French Derby to provide serious contenders for the Arc. Well, the GPdP winner in 2006 was Rail Link.
The French might have pulled off a masterstroke with the GPdeP – I became annoyed that the inconsequential race of my childhood, the Irish Derby, went on to become the race where the winners of the English & French Derbies met to slug it out as to who was better, meaning that the Irish Derby was now somehow better than the Epsom Derby. Now, you might be able to get the winners of the English & Irish Derbies slugging it out in the Grand Prix de Paris.
Gerald