best derby ever.

​The Epsom Derby this year was undoubtedly the best, by far, during my lifetime. I accept the purist amongst you would prefer to witness the dawning of a new superstar colt, a Nijinsky or Nashwan, horses that win on the bridle or with overwhelming dominance, and then there are Derbies, as it was last season, when four horses flash past the finishing post in near unison. But for me a great Derby gives us a story that excites, or at the very least engages, viewers and spectators who do not ordinarily watch or follow horse racing. On Saturday Serpentine and Emmet McNamara gave us exactly that.
At this moment in the season, it matters not one jot whether Serpentine will go on to prove a poor, average or outstanding Derby winner. It may be that the fifteen beaten horses might win only a handful of races between them during their careers and Serpentine will be disparaged because of their failings. We do not know the future. We do not know, for instance, whether Mogul, English King or Russian Emperor sustained an injury during the race. The fact is this: Serpentine was a spectacular pillar to post winner, beating his rivals by 5 & ½-lengths and more. His sectional time in the last furlong may have been slower than most of his rivals but his overall time for the race was still faster than the rest of them. My initial reaction, which remains, is that Serpentine is a top-class colt who can only get better over time.
Whether Emmet McNamara rode his colleagues to sleep or all fifteen of them are guilty of riding an injudicious race is only a sideshow to the main narrative, in my opinion. Padraig Beggy, for instance, who rode my fancy for the race Vatican City, would have been instructed to ride his horse with the notion that he might not fully stay the Derby distance and was to come to win his race in the final furlong. If he had tried to cut down his stable-companion’s lead at the halfway point or at the entrance to the home straight, say, I am sure Aidan would have taken him to one side and, given that the genius does not lose his temper, left him there to ponder the error of his ways.
To my mind, Derby trials should be run over the Derby distance. The next expert or trainer to roll-out the ‘Guineas is the best Derby trial’ when asked to give insight to the betting public should be made to accompany Matt Chapman for a week or muck-out a dozen stable for a similar length of time. The 2,000 Guineas is over a mile, the Derby 4-furlongs further. It is like saying the Ryanair is the best trial for the Grand National.
This season is unique, and hopefully will remain so in history. But surely hanging a horse’s season on the Derby without knowing for certain if the horse gets the Derby distance is plainly lacking sense. A horse might run in the Grand National and prove ineffectual over 4-miles-plus but he will have the whole of the summer to get over his exertions. A Derby horse will be in training for the rest of the summer and the whole of Autumn. It is why the Derby should be run on the first Saturday of July and not the first Saturday in June to allow for more races for 3-year-olds over the Derby trip. If it were the latter this year, Serpentine would almost certainly not have run this year.
Another thing, and I am not suggesting Kameko will not prove effective over shorter distances, but if he didn’t stay the Derby distance, I can only suggest that he stayed it better than the twelve that finished behind him. It would be more truthful of Andrew Balding to say that to protect his stallion value it makes sense to run him over shorter distances. Kameko would win many a race over 1-mile & ½ - they just wouldn’t be the type of race to bolster his appeal as a stallion.
I said after the 1,000 Guineas that Love would win the Oaks and she did. I hope ‘the boys’ take her to the St.Leger to try to win the  fillies Triple Crown. It is not as if they do not have other horses to aim for the Arc – Japan, Magical, Anthony Van Dyk, Serpentine, to name but four.