Gordianus: the Derby Winner preparing his grand return

The son of Señor Candy is already working towards his return, which could take place in the Gran Premio de Honor(G1); in an interview with Turf Diario, Hugo Pérez, his trainer, shares how he has been preparing and that the main objective is the Gran Premio República Argentina

By Diego H. Mitagstein

In the old times, between cold dawns and stopwatches in hand, respect for the winner of the Gran Premio Nacional (G1) was sacred. For Hugo Pérez, that Uruguayan of generous loquacity who graduated long ago in the art of preparing stayers, the maxim remains valid: the Crack of the Year is the owner of the Derby. And today, that scepter belongs to Gordianus, the colt who paralyzed hearts on the Palermo dirt and who, after a forced parenthesis due to circumstances, is already sharpening his hooves for the comeback.

Recent history tells that, after his consecration in the 2,500 meters of the Nacional, the logical path was the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini (G1). However, horse racing has those administrative twists that sometimes clash with the trainer's sensitivity. "The idea after the Nacional was to run the Pellegrini, but I needed the track on a specific day, more or less two days, but they didn't give it to me. Not being able to work the way we wanted, we also thought about the Ramírez. But the trip to Uruguay is always cumbersome; I know that well and I suffered through it, and it made me decide not to run it either," explains Pérez frankly, unwilling to improvise with a horse of such magnitude.

Faced with the refusal of ideal conditions to run on the San Isidro grass, the professional opted for the wisdom of the countryside. Gordianus was sent to Haras Carampangue, under the care of Ignacio Pavlovsky (h). "I asked Nachitoto keep him in the box, in the stallion's paddock. They gave him a lap at a trot on the track every day, and then he would release him to the paddock for an hour or two. The truth is he came back great; he was completely sound. I simply said 'let's relieve him a bit,' because the goal becomes the República Argentina," confesses the trainer.

The calendar marks May 1st as D-Day. It is a date that brings unforgettable memories to Hugo Pérez, as in 1999 he inscribed his name in the history of that race with the remembered Desirable (Equalize). "If I could run one before—the Honor (G1)—it would be ideal, but the horse will say that. The horses' times must be respected," maintains the trainer. Although today the distance has been shortened to 2,000 meters, the nostalgia for the long distance remains intact: "I would like the República Argentina to be as it was when I won it, 2,500 meters, but it isn't. So we are going to try to have him arrive as best as possible."

The fine-tuning process is already underway. The defender of the Stud El Olimppo silks already registers 1,000-meter works and soft breezes. Pérez's script is non-negotiable: "He is a horse that I work softly. He won the Nacional with a 1,000-meter breeze in 1m6s, on the second lap, and the long work was 2m53s or 2m54s for the 2,500 meters. I know he is a horse for soft work, much training and little intensity. He won at 1,400 on debut, but his strength is the distance; he won't have a problem adapting to 2,000 meters."

But there is more on the horizon: the challenge of the turf is still pending for the Estrellas. "We are going to have to request the grass track well in advance to clear that unknown of whether the horse runs the same on the grass as on the dirt, thinking further ahead," says Pérez.

The Pellegrini issue is a thorn that remains stuck for the professional: "I remember when Juan Carlos Maldotti won the Pellegrini, he asked for the track and they gave him a breeze. I also ran the Pellegrini many times and they always give you the track if they haven't run on the grass before. This time they gave it in a condition that didn't serve the horse, and unfortunately, we were left without the best representative of the generation to face the adults and the Brazilians," states the trainer, who does not hide his vision of the crack's hierarchy.

"The Derby Winner is the Derby Winner in all parts of the world. Today people think the crack is the one who runs 1,200 or 2,000, but that's how I learned as a child: the crack of the year is always the winner of the Nacional. After that, they have to prove themselves throughout their campaigns; great horses have beaten the crack and have lost to the crack. Congreve beat Coples. In Uruguay, they said that trainers graduated as such when they won at 2,500 meters," concludes the man who today has the responsibility of returning the best colt of the season to the track.

Hugo Pérez defends his pupil's lineage against the fashions of the polls. For him, there is no discussion about who was the best of 2025. "The Derby Winner is the Derby Winner," he reiterates.

With the return of Gordianus, Argentine turf will recover one of its central figures. In the hands of a man who respects timing and who, as a good exponent of the Oriental school, knows that a trainer graduates as such when he masters the long distance, the champion prepares to prove that his crown was not a work of chance, but the beginning of everything.