Remembering Motivator’s Derby, Two Decades On

[Wandering Eyes]

It was exactly 20 years ago on Wednesday that Motivator made history with his scintillating success in the Derby, becoming the first ever syndicate-owned winner of the Classic for the 230 members of the Royal Ascot Racing Club.

Inevitably, Michael Bell's new superstar was the centre of attention in the immediate aftermath, swarmed in a crowd the likes of which the Epsom winner's enclosure had never seen before. Meanwhile, just a short distance away out on the track, connections of the placed horses, Walk In The Park and Dubawi, were left to lick their wounds after what had ultimately been a comprehensive beating at the hands of racing's next big thing.

Little did we know then the significant role that they too would come to play in the annals of this great sport, one now a colossus of the National Hunt stallion ranks and the other one of the world's most successful Flat sires of his generation.

Here, we trace the steps of Motivator and the cast of A-listers left trailing in his wake, from that fateful day at Epsom to their collective achievements since which make the 2005 Derby, arguably, one of the most impactful races of the 21st century.

The Race

A field of 13 went to post for the 2005 edition of the Derby, but the race itself proved an entirely one-sided affair as 3/1 favourite Motivator stormed to an emphatic five-length victory in the hands of Johnny Murtagh. That stretched his unbeaten record to four races, having already won the G1 Racing Post Trophy at two and G2 Dante Stakes on his return to action at three.

In a remarkable one-two for Montjeu from his first crop of three-year-olds, Motivator was followed home by the French raider Walk In The Park, who was trained, like Montjeu, by John Hammond, and arrived at Epsom on the back of a narrow defeat in the Lingfield Derby Trial. The winner was already away and gone by the time Walk In The Park hit top stride, but he ran on stoutly in the final furlong to finish a clear second ahead of the tiring Dubawi, a clear non-stayer on his first start beyond a mile.

The Aftermath

Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Dubawi, who'd also struck at the top level as a juvenile when landing the National Stakes, unsurprisingly dropped back to a mile after his creditable effort in defeat at Epsom, returning over two months later with a stylish win in a vintage renewal of the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois. The next three home–Whipper, Valixir and Divine Proportions–arrived at Deauville as the winners of 10 Group 1 races between them, but Dubawi stamped his class on proceedings as he strode to victory by a length and a half with Kerrin McEvoy deputising for Frankie Dettori.

As it turned out, that would be the only subsequent win achieved by the first three from the 2005 Derby. Dubawi ended his career with a runner-up effort behind Starcraft in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, while Motivator went on to fill the same position in the G1 Eclipse and G1 Irish Champion Stakes, both times behind Oratorio, before signing off with a fifth-place finish as another son of Montjeu, Hurricane Run, dominated the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

As for Walk In The Park, he missed the remainder of his three-year-old campaign after finishing only eighth in the Irish Derby won by Hurricane Run. He raced for another couple of seasons, producing one of his better efforts when hitting the frame in the G3 Prix d'Hedouville as a four-year-old, before suffering the ignominy for a Derby second of being sent hurdling. His solitary outing in that sphere saw him finish fifth in a Listed event at Auteuil.

The Early Years at Stud

Following in the footsteps of illustrious names such as Bustino and Shirley Heights, Motivator was retired at the end of his three-year-old season to stand at the Queen's Royal Studs at Sandringham. However, having been introduced at a fee of £20,000, he was denied the opportunity to cover a full book of mares after injuring himself in a paddock accident. From 63 foals, that first crop of juveniles yielded eight individual winners (from 32 runners), headed by the G2 May Hill Stakes heroine Pollenator.

In 2010, Motivator's stud career met with another setback when a tendon injury forced him to miss the breeding season in its entirety. He stood for £8,000 when he returned in 2011 and then just £5,000 in 2012. Only 33 foals came from that final crop bred at the Royal Studs, before he was on his way to Haras du Quesnay in France for 2013, having sired 10 individual stakes winners up until the end of 2012. The bright spark was Ridasiyna, his first Group 1 winner when landing that year's Prix de l'Opera.

Things were looking altogether rosier for Dubawi at the same stage of his career, though even he had found himself covering smaller books of mares in his third and fourth seasons at stud, like so many other stallions before and since. Having commanded a fee of £25,000 in his first two seasons at Dalham Hall Stud, he then stood for €40,000 at Kildangan Stud in Ireland in 2008, before returning to Newmarket where he stood for a career-low fee of £10,000 the following year.

That fourth crop conceived in 2009 numbered only 61 foals, but then his first juveniles hit the ground running with 34 individual winners (from 71 runners), including the G2 Champagne Stakes hero Poet's Voice and G2 Flying Childers Stakes scorer Sand Vixen. Poet's Voice would go on to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes as a three-year-old, by which time Dubawi had already made the breakthrough at the top level, and in the best possible fashion, as Makfi tasted Classic glory in the 2,000 Guineas.

By the end of 2012, Dubawi had amassed 39 individual stakes winners, with Dubai World Cup hero Monterosso, Deutsches Derby victor Waldpark and Hong Kong Sprint sensation Lucky Nine featuring among his other Group 1 winners.

Meanwhile, far away from the lavish surroundings of the Royal Studs and those at Dalham Hall, Walk In The Park was taking the formative steps in a stallion career which would ultimately lead him down the National Hunt path. Based at Haras du Val Raquet in France, he came up with his sole black-type winner on the Flat from his second crop, namely the Listed scorer Dance In The Park, conceived at a fee of just €3,000 in 2009.

That second crop, numbering just 39 foals, also featured a certain Douvan, whose success rather foretold what was to come in later years. After getting off the mark over hurdles on his second try at Compiegne, he was then bought privately on behalf of Rich Ricci and would go on to prove himself one of the most talented horses Willie Mullins has ever trained with eight Grade 1 wins.

The Building of a Legacy

Having sported the colours of Michael Tabor in his racing days, Walk In The Park found himself back in the Coolmore fold at the start of the 2016 breeding season as he relocated to Grange Stud, less than a year after Douvan had first announced himself on the big stage with a romp in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

That first year in Fermoy, Co. Cork yielded 179 foals, a remarkable upturn on the nine–yes, nine–he conceived in his first of three seasons at Haras des Granges in France in 2013.

Walk In The Park has been covering bumper books of high-quality mares at a private fee ever since, with the ultimate accolade coming his way in 2023/24 when he was crowned Britain and Ireland's champion National Hunt sire for the first time. Douvan's full brother, Jonbon, led the charge with a hat-trick of Grade 1 victories, before repeating that feat during the latest season when Walk In The Park defended his crown by a country mile.

Jonbon was joined among Walk In The Park's top three prize-money earners by Inothewayurthinkin and Nick Rockett, who ticked off a couple of notable firsts for their sire when winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National, respectively.

With Walk In The Park's oldest Irish-bred crop having only just turned eight, the potential is there for him to dominate for many years to come, while already the sharp minds at Coolmore, never ones to rest on their laurels, have turned to the next generation. Earlier this year it was revealed that the team is busy sourcing the stallion's best young stock and putting them into training with Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm in France, with the express purpose of trying to uncover one or more top-class sons to continue the line.

Whilst those efforts are still very much in their infancy, it's fair to say that Dubawi's legacy as a sire of sires is already secure, with Group 1-winning sons such as Night Of Thunder, Too Darn Hot, New Bay and Zarak–to name just a few–all making a tremendous fist of their second careers at stud.

It simply isn't possible to do justice to Dubawi's game-changing achievements in this small space, but he brought his number of individual stakes winners to a nice neat figure towards the end of last month when Marksman Queen made it 300 with her win in the Keertana Stakes at Churchill Downs. That total includes 61 individual Group 1 winners and 192 individual Group winners.

It's a tale of metronomic consistency at the upper echelons of the sport which has seen Dubawi finish among the top five sires in Britain and Ireland every year since 2013. After filling the runner-up spot behind Galileo on six occasions, he was finally crowned champion sire for the first time in 2022, when his star performers included Coroebus, the third of his four winners of the 2,000 Guineas, and Eldar Eldarov, who delivered his sire a first success in the St Leger.

In 2023, Dubawi's fee at Dalham Hall Stud was increased to £350,000, identifying him as the most expensive stallion standing in Europe, a position he has shared with Frankel for the last two years.

And then there's good old Motivator who, in 2025, is standing his third consecutive season at Haras du Hoguenet at the rather more modest fee of €5,000, whilst proving a popular visitor attraction at that Normandy farm as he starts to wind down a stallion career which has had more ups and downs than the Epsom terrain he conquered so masterfully all those years ago.

The undoubted highs came courtesy of the magnificent dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Treve who, funnily enough, was a superior racehorse to anything Dubawi has produced thus far, using Timeform ratings as a steer. The four-time Group 1 winner Ghaiyyath provides the stiffest competition, with a rating of 133 to Treve's 134.

Treve's exploits as a three-year-old in 2013 saw Motivator sustain the strong support he'd received in his first season at Haras du Quesnay. Introduced at €7,000, he produced 99 foals from that first crop conceived in France and another 92 the following year, at the increased fee of €15,000, after Treve had rattled off a Group 1 hat-trick. But whilst seven stakes winners emerged from those two crops, he was unable to really kick on with his Flat runners in the way that might have been hoped.

Instead, the most accomplished performers conceived in his later years at Haras du Quesnay were in the National Hunt sphere, headed by the Grade 1-winning hurdlers For Fun, Pentland Hills and Stormy Ireland, as well as Jigme, who now stands alongside his sire at Haras du Hoguenet.

Happily, it was reported that Motivator himself covered 80 mares in 2024, with the success of Jigme in the Prix Cambaceres the previous autumn no doubt contributing to this latest spike in popularity.

The Missing Piece

Collectively, the first three from that 2005 Derby have achieved nearly everything in the two decades since, from giving us Group 1-winning sprinters to Grand National heroes, but the one thing missing is a winner of the Classic in which their paths crossed for the one and only time.

That opportunity to produce an Epsom colt in his image has surely long passed for Motivator, while even the creative campaigning of 'the lads' is unlikely to see any sons of Walk In The Park go down the Flat route at this late stage of his life, whatever their determination to find his successor.

That puts all of the pressure of expectation squarely on the shoulders of Dubawi, who on Saturday has a golden opportunity to finally break his Derby duck with Delacroix, the market leader after his impressive win in the Leopardstown Derby Trial. For good measure, Dubawi is also the grandsire of six of the other 18 runners, via his sons New Bay (Pride Of Arras and New Ground), Ghaiyyath (Stanhope Gardens and Nightime Dancer), Too Darn Hot (Tornado Alert) and Night Of Thunder (Tuscan Hills).

Dubawi can already count a Derby winner on his CV as a broodmare sire, courtesy of Adayar in 2021, but he's never had a son of his own finish better than fifth, while his record in the Oaks had been similarly underwhelming for a stallion of his stature, before Ezeliya and Dance Sequence righted that wrong by completing a one-two in last year's renewal.

We'll know by 3.40pm on Saturday whether that missing piece of the puzzle has been slotted into place, with the big doubt facing Delacroix being that of stamina–the same quality his sire was found lacking for in a race for the ages, all of 20 years ago.

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