This year’s premier Classic is named in honour of the late His Highness Aga Khan IV this year and Midak, trained by Francis-Henri Graffard, will carry his famous green silks.
The Aga Khan, who died in February, will always be synonymous with the great race.
Shergar (1981), Shahrastani (1986), Kahyasi (1988) Sinndar (2000) and Harzand (2016) all ruled on the Surrey Downs for him.
His grandfather, The Aga Khan III, had also won the Derby with Blenheim (1930), Baharm (1935), Mahmoud 1936), My Love (1948) and Tulyar (1952).
The Aga Khan IV's, daughter, Princess Zahra, gave Racing TV’s Nick Luck an exclusive interview during which she revealed Midak would take part in the Derby after preserving his 100 per cent record with victory in the Group Three Prix Greffule, last time out.
Not originally entered, the supplementary fee is £75,000.
Princess Zahra, said: “My family and I are incredibly grateful to Epsom and The Jockey Club for running the race in honour of my father.
“I'm touched, and he would be incredibly chuffed. It's a great honour for him and it would have made him very happy.
The Derby is an iconic event that he deeply loved and winning it for the first time with Shergar brought him immense pride and joy. It gave him the sense that the work his father and grandfather had accomplished with the breeding operation was being carried forward.“
He eventually matched the record of my great-grandfather when Harzand secured his fifth Derby victory - a wonderful achievement.”
French-trained challengers have been successful ten times in The Derby, with Pour Moi (2011) the first French raider to score since Empery in 1976. Pour Moi won the Prix Greffule en route to glory.
Midak’s presence will add another layer of intrigue in Saturday’s £1.5 million showpiece.
Other runners on course to run are Ruling Court, the 2000 Guineas winner, plus the unbeaten Pride Of Arras, superb winner of the Dante. And Aidan O’Brien, who has already secured a record ten winners of the race, has five challengers to juggle.
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- Great to have a french runner in the Derby!. Fair play connections for supplementing him
- She sounds absolutely wonderful. If the horse is anything like her, “ it will be pure class” Good luck 🤞
- Everyl Madell Lovely interview, wonderful lady , beautiful house and stunning stables , stud , and training gallops !!! 💚🏇🏻❤️🏇🏻💚🏇🏻❤️🏇🏻
- Travelled many tens of thousands of miles to see him ride; the magnificence of Islington at Santa Anita, what a ride that was. So many great memories in person; but I had the house on that day, new girlfriend, fancy hotel and Los Angeles beckoning… Oh boy 😅😅😅
- Stellar career 😂😂 Dude was caught race fixing and cocaine busts......you promoting him. Feels like coruption supports corruption 🤔 is the impression im getting!!
- was at Chester one evening. Kieran going down to the post on a 4/1 chance we fancied.. we shouted KIERAN ..he heard us and give us a wink...we took it as a tip and it romped home.. great jockey great guy.
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