He's run placed in the Blue Riband Trial and the Lingfield Derby Trial as well as partaking of the Derby gallops morning, meaning that no horse in the field for Saturday will have greater experience of the oddities of Epsom than Balzac. His owner and trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam will be flying the flag not just for Newmarket but also for Australia, and her participation in the Betfred Derby represents long-term planning by the Melbourne native. She says, “You always say it when you buy a horse, don't you? 'This is my Derby horse.' But with him that was always the plan: the Derby and the Melbourne Cup.”It's good to have bold ambition, and Chappple-Hyam has never shied away from that. This is the trainer who sent out 100/1 shot Mudawin to land the Ebor in only her first year with a licence. She's also been second in the 1,000 Guineas with dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach, one of her two Royal Ascot winners. The second of those was Balzac's half-brother Claymore, who, like Saffron Beach, was one of the early good 'uns for their sire New Bay.“This has been the goal all year,” she says of saddling her first Derby runner, “and I only have myself to answer to.”Balzac will also become the first runner in the Derby for his sire Japan (Galileo), who was bred at Newsells Park Stud and now stands in Germany at Gestut Etzean. The full-brother to Oaks runner-up Secret Gesture was third in the Derby himself in 2019 before going on to win, in quick succession, the King Edward VII Stakes, Grand Prix de Paris and Juddmonte International. “I don't normally go to the foal sales. He's probably only the third foal I've bought,” says Chapple-Hyam, who admits that she went to inspect the colt solely because he was Claymore's brother. “Claymore's been a good servant and he's still around. He's just ticking over till he goes back to Hungary to Kincsem Park, where he won last year.”She has struck up a friendship with the breeder of the pair, Gunther Schmidt, a familiar face on the sales grounds through his transport business Taxis 4 Horses. “I'm constantly sending him videos and pictures. He's coming to Epsom and he's very passionate about it all,” she says.“A bit like Rebel Rocker's owner, I've had the phone ringing. And it's nice that we've both stood by our horses. He was never for sale, not my boy.” Jane Chapple-Hyam with Balzac Rebel Rocker, like Balzac, also has a female trainer, Faye Bramley, whose fledgling career has already been marked by her taking a significant prize over jumps at Cheltenham, and she too will be saddling a Derby runner for the first time.The thought of becoming the first woman trainer to win the Derby is not something Chapple-Hyam gets too excited about. “Someone mentioned it because a female trainer [Cherie DeVaux] won the Kentucky Derby, but I don't, as a rule, think of it like that. I've been around too long. It's just my job,” she says from Newmarket's Warren Hill as she watches her string, including Balzac and his rider, apprentice Alexandra Egan.“I came here when I was 17 and I'm 60 this year,” she adds. “I suppose you know deep down you can't win. You just know you can't beat the Aidan [O'Brien] or the Haggas or the Johnston horse, for example. But I know he can give a good account of himself.”The trainer says that her Melbourne Cup hopes are longer term. “I think it would be better for him as an older horse but we might get a trip to France later this year. Probably when we put him back into Group 3s, we'll see a better outcome. But as I say, there's only one Derby, so you take your chance, don't you?“It's a sort of romantic thing, really. You either like the Derby, or you like the Guineas, and you aim for that. I think buying milers is really out of my league because it's too expensive. But the staying type gives you an easier chance at that lower level [of the market] when they're young stock. The milers with the great pedigrees get snapped up for a lot more. But if you hit on a good middle-distance horse, not even necessarily a Group 1 horse, there are so many more opportunities as they progress, and you've got the market. If you do have a Listed or Group 3 horse, they get snapped up by the Australians for racing out there.” Balzac ridden by apprentice Alexandra Egan | Emma Berry Balzac, though, has no 'for sale' sticker on him. Hiis trainer is relishing the prospect of him competing in the £2 million contest this Saturday with Silvestre de Sousa aboard. “I was probably more nervous about Lingfield because I backed him up quickly after Epsom, but I didn't do anything with him so he probably wasn't as fit as a flea because I hadn't given him a gallop in between races,” she says. “He's finished third twice now to Maltese Cross – first time out at Newmarket and then at Lingfield. I don't think I can reverse the form there, and you have to say at least two of Aidan's would finish in front of us, that's why I say if he finishes sixth, that's a very good result for him. And if he finishes further down the field, so be it. We've given it a try.” The post A Derby and Melbourne Cup Dream: Chapple-Hyam’s Bold Plan for Balzac appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.