The Derby yearns for its place back in the media sun. Today is its best chance in years albeit hardly likely to equal 1825 when the winner, Middleton, overcame a nobbling scare and landed a Waterloo sized bet for the Duke Of Wellington whose own coachmen trousered no less than the then equivalent £125k for themselves.
Nor can any of the riders boast remotely the profile of Steve Donoghue who would have been the country’s most popular sportsman when he drove home Manna in 1925, his 6th victory in the race. Or that of Lester Piggott when he cruised home on Nijinsky in 1970 in what was the 5th of his record 9 victories in this famed “Blue Riband of the Turf.”
But let’s be inspired by the past not imprisoned by it. Parliament isn’t going to rise on Derby Day. Some latter-day Charles Dickens isn’t going to hire “a carriage and four good horses” to trot the 14 miles to the track complete with a Fortnum and Mason lobster and champagne filled hamper while half of London trekked along in the 1850s.
Only a royal victory or a dreadful pile up at Tattenham Corner is going to put the Derby ahead of an England international on the sports pages as is likely tomorrow. Long gone are the days when, with only a few degrees of poetic licence I could tell Ch4 viewers “we are joined by 300,000” people on these downs”
So forget the history, this Derby remains an extraordinary event. 19 equine athletes in whom 300 years of selective breeding and a whole life of nurture and training have readied for this test. And if you haven’t, you should walk the course. You won’t believe it. A young French jockey didn’t when I took him round in the 70s. Looking down across the dipping cambered sweep of Tattenham Corner he muttered “Ce n’est pas un hippodrome. C’est fou.”
Madness or not, today is a magnificently competitive contest. It has Ruling Court, the 2,000 Guineas winner for whom victory would surely aim him for the St Leger and the Triple Crown last won when Piggott and Nijinsky took the St Leger three months after their Derby triumph.
It has three runners from 10 times winning trainer Aidan O’Brien including the favourite Delacroix ridden by the world ‘s best jockey Ryan Moore who has won the last two Derbies for O’Brien on Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy.
Midak and New Ground, come from France. The former, an unbeaten colt representing the new Aga Khan in a race run this year in honour of his late father who won 5 Derbies just as his own grandfather did before him
In Pride Of Arras, we have a major contender owned and bred in Yorkshire whilst Midak comes over from France as a first runner for the Aga Khan in a race run in memory of his father who won it five times as his grandfather did before him.
Damysus is a first Derby runner for the Emir of Qatar’s Wathnan Racing operation whose big impact entry into the racing game is matched by that of football agent Kia Joorachim who runs 80-1 shot Tuscan Hills with the memory of being second in recent years with Mojo Star at 50-1 in 2021 and King Of Steel two years ago at 66s.
The 150 members of the Middleham Park syndicate who own Lazy Griff may not match those two owners’ resources but no one will beat them for enthusiasm and the way their colt ran at Chester last time suggests he could way outrun his odds of 150-1.
In many ways racing seems in a frightful mess beleaguered by a well-intentioned but utterly flawed governance structure which sees any radical proposal immediately beset by internecine wrangling amongst its assorted constituents. It is an irony that leading figures in the game, usually from the right of the political spectrum and call for “strong leadership” go all socialist when it comes to decision making and compromise.
When Lord Allen, the newly designated chairman of the BHA announced last week that he would delay taking up his appointment he would not be the first in his role to discover that the “A” in British Horseracing Authority doesn’t mean what it says. His Lordship has a distinguished record and likes to get things done even if his style might not be quite as dictatorial as that of the Duke of Wellington after he chaired his first cabinet meeting as Prime Minister three years after landing that Derby coup in 1825.
“An extraordinary affair,” The Iron Duke famously said, “I gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.” We have moved on a bit in 200 years but the Derby still inspires. Help yourselves to Stanhope Gardens at 14-1.