Lambourn Latest in Line of Derby Greats

[Wandering Eyes]

EPSOM DOWNS, UK — Back in those heady days of the early 1980s, Lord Howard de Walden's Slip Anchor slipped the field under Steve Cauthen to land the Derby by seven lengths and all felt right with the world. A Derby winner by a Derby winner by a Derby winner. 

And here we are again. Lambourn, by Australia, by Galileo (and let's not forget Australia's dam, the mighty Ouija Board): an all-the-way Derby winner by almost four lengths.

“He'll stay a while,” said a smiling Wayne Lordan, so deservedly now a Derby-winning jockey, having looked dangerously like being an Oaks-winning jockey only a day earlier. Cometh the hour.

In these pages yesterday, MV Magnier had spoken of the importance of the Derby to Coolmore, arguably the most powerful breeding operation in the world. “It's why we get up in the morning,” he said. 

Aidan O'Brien will get up tomorrow morning as the trainer of 11 Derby winners with 47 British Classics to his name after another rip-roaring weekend at Epsom. It is a record that is somehow unimaginable and, yet, annually expected to be extended, and extended.

This latest colt to pass that celebrated piece of wood with his nose very firmly in front is a Coolmore homebred, and his rider very much one of the family at Ballydoyle, having joined the team there some eight years ago. Lordan has won a Breeders' Cup, an Irish 1,000 Guineas, and a 1,000 Guineas among a whole bunch of Group 1 victories. Now, at the age of 43, comes the biggest win of his career, a little over a year after he returned from serious injuries which saw hime sidelined for eight months. 

“Wayne Lordan works so hard and he deserves this for all the time and effort he puts into everything. To win the Derby, it's magical,” said Magnier. “Wayne is one of the best riders in the world: his time and effort, his professionalism, is extraordinary.”

He continued, “Aidan fancied all three horses, through obviously Delacroix was number one. But this horse is very genuine and just kept going. He's a Derby winner, by a Derby winner, by a Derby winner. That's pretty extraordinary. And that's how you win the Derby: breeding precocious horses that are quick enough to do it.

“He was going to be pretty hard to run down going around Tattenham Corner. I watched [the replay of] Slip Anchor this morning and for a moment I was thinking, 'Oh my God, Steve Cauthen's riding him'.”

Cauthen rebooted, also known as the self-effacing Lordan, was brought into the media centre to face the questioning scrum, taking over in the spotlight from Ryan Moore who finished fully 16 lengths behind him on the favourite Delacroix.

“I do feel this horse was a bit overlooked because he's not a flashy horse, he goes along behind the bridle, he just does his own thing. I knew anything that got past me was going to have to stay really well and I knew my horse was genuine and tries hard,” he said. He could almost have been describing himself.

They say there are no prizes for finishing second, but there is no small amount of pride. In the case of Lazy Griff, son of a Melbourne Cup winner, beloved of his 30 syndicate members and many more of the Middleham Park Racing owners present on the day, finishing runner-up to a Coolmore horse in the Derby was the result of a lifetime.

 

Lazy Griff and his happy owners of Middleham Park Racing | Emma Berry

 

“This is crazy stuff,” said Middleham Park's Mike Prince as he watched their hero return to the second-place post with Christophe Soumillon. “But to be fair it was all there on page seven of the Bugle. His form in the [Prix de] Conde had worked out well with the horse who finished behind him winning the Prix Saint Alary, and we knew he'd stay. Christophe is no fool. He's not come over here for nothing.”

The Irish Derby, German Derby and Grand Prix de Paris are all now races to ponder in the colt's near future for trainer Charlie Johnston, who did however describe a potential rematch with Lambourn at the Curragh as akin to “going into the lion's den”. There is of course always the final British Classic of the season at Doncaster for a Yorkshire-trained horse who certainly should get the extra distance of the St Leger. 

In the meantime, however, another Derby meeting is in the books. We are nearing the end of days when we will see a Group 1 winner by Galileo, but Jan Brueghel added another to his tally in the Coronation Cup while Galileo's sons Australia and Frankel provided the winners of the Derby and the Oaks. Scat Daddy, grandsire last year of City Of Troy through his Triple Crown-winning son Justify, this year featured as broodmare sire of Lambourn. 

In a feat that should be remarkable but is now almost business as usual, the trophies for all three of those Group 1 races are now in transit to a select corner of Tipperary. 

Urged to try to put into words the magnitude of his eleventh Derby victory, O'Brien spoke of the focus placed on the race in the regime of his horses: “Everything in Ballydoyle is about Epsom.” Enough said. 

 

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