The Pat Smullen Column: Derby Dilemma

[Wandering Eyes]

The Irish Derby was certainly a strange race to watch. From about the four-furlong marker I just had a sense that the leaders were gone. The chasing pack allowed the pacemakers plenty of rope but, that said, if you were Ryan Moore or Chris Hayes on the main two fancies, it would have been very difficult to pull out at the five- or six-furlong marker and decide that you were going to chase a 33-1 shot and a so-called pacemaker. It’s a very tough call.

The jockeys were criticised for not following but I think we have to give Sovereign (Ire) plenty of credit. He has every right to be a Derby winner on pedigree. Of course he’s by Galileo (Ire) and if you look back you’ll find the Oaks winner Balanchine (Storm Bird {Can}) there in his pedigree which is laden with stamina and class. This horse is probably only finding himself now as he’s going up in trip.

Sovereign never really got a chance at Epsom. He went along at a proper pace but they never let up on him so he never got the chance to show what ability he may have had. He certainly did at the Curragh, however, and the Curragh lends itself to that. It’s much more of a galloping track than Epsom and I think the horse got into a beautiful rhythm and was given an excellent ride by Padraig Beggy.  Padraig is a very good rider—he’s had his ups and downs throughout his career—but since he came back to Ireland from Australia he has been a valued member of staff at Ballydoyle. His judgement of pace is excellent and that was evident on a horse who looks to be improving with every day that goes by.  Of course it’s hindsight that tells us that and I can fully understand the other jockeys, in the heat of the battle, not chasing the leader at halfway through the race. Unfortunately they got it wrong and that was the story of the race.

What people perhaps don’t realise is that the Curragh is a much stiffer test than Epsom. On the Derby track, which is only used twice a year, you’re on the turn a lot of the time. If you’re on a good horse getting a reasonably easy lead and you’re slowly getting away from the field, then at the top of the hill you can give your horse a squeeze and freewheel down off the hill into the straight. That’s what can happen at the Curragh and when it does it can be near impossible to peg the leader back, as we saw on Saturday.

Derby Needs A Boost
I think the Irish racing authorities and the Curragh itself need to look at the Derby. John Magnier and Ballydoyle support the race well and, yes, they monopolise it but that’s because they have the best horses. This year, Dermot Weld, Kevin Prendergast and Jim Bolger also supported the race but there seems to be a lack of good middle-distance horses in Ireland outside Ballydoyle. Then there was no representation from England, and personally I would love to see it go back to the years of when the likes of Andre Fabre and Alain de Royer Dupre came from France to support the race. It’s been 20 years since we had Pascal Bary win it with Dream Well (Fr) and then John Hammond with Montjeu (Ire). I was lucky enough to win it twice and it’s such a great race but it’s in danger of not holding on to that status as it should. Dermot Weld commented to me over the weekend that as it’s so expensive to fly horses around the world maybe the Curragh should put on a plane to bring horses from England or France to Ireland and encourage more people to run. Certainly something has to be done to give the race a boost.

Sizzling Siskin
Ger Lyons and Colin Keane had a fantastic weekend and Siskin (First Defence) looks like he could be a really big horse for them. I thought he was mightily impressive in the Railway Stakes. I was keen to take him on with Monarch Of Egypt (American Pharoah), who I thought was a very good horse when he won his maiden at Naas.  Monarch Of Egypt had a little hold-up and missed Ascot and I thought there was a lot to take from his run in second. He’s clearly a very good colt but I take nothing away from Siskin, who will now go to the Phoenix Stakes as a very strong contender. He’s by far the best 2-year-old that I’ve seen out so far.

I have been very pleased to see Prince Khalid Abdullah support Ger Lyons with some decent horses. The prince has been a great supporter of Dermot Weld and I was very fortunate to ride plenty of good horses for Juddmonte over the years. He’s been fantastic for racing and it’s lovely to see him sending that calibre of horse to Ireland.

Eagle Takes Flight
I have also been really pleased to see my old friend Free Eagle (Ire) starting to get some nice winners from his first crop. The reports are quite positive on him and I think there will be some nice horses to come out later in the year. He was always going to be that type of sire that has more horses running in the second half of the year rather than early, precocious types, but he has three winners on the board already from not many runners, and let’s hope we see some quality horses emerging as the season goes on.

On his day, Free Eagle was as good a horse as I’ve ever sat on. A mile and a quarter was his ideal distance but he had a lot of pace, a really good turn of foot. Unfortunately he had a few injuries through his racing career which held him back from opportunities. He got an injury when he was being prepared for the Derby, though hindsight would probably tell us now that he maybe wouldn’t have stayed a mile and a half, but we thought going into the race he had a huge chance. He was brilliant when he won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and I’m not surprised that he is starting to succeed as a sire as he has all the right credentials.

Kildare’s Got Talent
When I was a kid and first started going racing, Kildare used to be absolutely jammed with the festival in the town connected to the Derby meeting. That has died out over the last number of years but the town has put a committee together, which included Orla Murtagh, to try to rejuvenate the festival. They put a huge amount of work into it this year and it was a very big success.

One of the highlights had to be the lip sync competition featuring teams of jockeys, trainers, stable staff and one from the sponsor, Paddy Power. The place was full to watch them in action and it was a huge amount of fun.

Orla wrangled me into being a judge and needless to say the ultimate showman came to the fore in Johnny Murtagh. We all know Johnny loves the camera and the limelight, and he was in his element on Saturday night. I was also quite taken aback by the ‘fab four’ of Shane Foley, Ronan Whelan, Colin Keane and Gary Carroll. The jockeys mimed to a medley of Queen songs and they looked very comfortable in themselves. Ronan certainly took the role of Freddie Mercury very seriously.

The best thing about it was seeing Kildare town absolutely buzzing again after the Derby.

 

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