STUDY Of Man stamped himself a real Derby prospect with a convincing victory in the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe at Saint-Cloud on Tuesday.

As is invariably the case in the Greffulhe – which has failed to attract a line-up of more than five runners in any of its last six renewals – this was a tactical affair with Study Of Man initially forced to make his own running before getting a lead from the outsider, Assiro.

And there was an element of jockey Stephane Pasquier getting first run on his other two rivals (the well-regarded German colt, Alhounak, and the narrow Prix Noailles runner-up, Alhadab) when he booted Study Of Man into the lead with a furlong and a half to run.

Yet his eventual winning margin over Alhounak – three and a half lengths – brooked little argument and now connections face the welcome dilemma of working out which classic to go for: the Prix du Jockey-Club or the Investec Derby?

DERBY

This result continued the recent impression that trainer Pascal Bary is back in the big time. After an unusually lean spell – which saw him go over six years without a Group 1 winner after Gloria De Campeao won the Dubai World Cup in 2010 – Bary teamed up with one of his oldest allies, owner-breeders the Niarchos family, to land the Prix de Diane with Senga last June.

Although that filly has been retired, the recently turned 65-year-old Bary has another Niarchos star on his hands in the shape of Study Of Man plus a top class stayer in last year’s Prix Royal-Oak hero, Ice Breeze.

Alan Cooper, the Niarchos family’s racing manager, admitted after the Greffulhe that Bary had dared suggest that Study Of Man’s acceleration reminded him of his grand mother, the great two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, Miesque.

Cooper also asserted that the venue for his next race appearance will “depend on what is best for the horse’’. Perhaps Epsom is the marginal favourite at the moment, as Bary has another useful colt in the recent Prix de Suresnes winner, Naturally High, as a possible for the Chantilly showpiece.

If Study Of Man does end up at Epsom, it will mean that he will join Aidan O’Brien’s brilliant 2000 Guineas winner, Saxon Warrior, in representing his sire, Deep Impact, in the original version of the Derby.

A legend of Japanese racing who put up the solitary below par performance of his career when only third in the 2006 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Deep Impact is now beginning to dominate racing in his homeland as a stallion to the same degree that Galileo does here in Europe.