"He clearly does not stay," said david jennings. I disagree.

​When a horse has won over the distance in a fast time, albeit in lesser company, and is then only placed in two Derbies, the whys and wherefores of defeat become a topic of debate. After the Irish Derby on Sunday, David Jennings went out on a wing and gave Racing Post readers the opinion that Ambiente Friendly ‘clearly did not stay.’ The owners, the Gredley family, agree with Jennings, even though they were dogmatic between Epsom and the Curragh, that their horse was a 12-furlong horse, with the Arc at Longchamp as the long-term aim.
Now, let me be clear, David Jennings would be my favourite Racing Post writer if it were not for Patrick Mullins. Mullins is a stealth writer, only contributing to the Racing Post when commissioned by Tom Kerr, the Post’s head man, when he submits memorable articles that live, as the use of memorable suggests, in the mind for weeks and months, sometimes demanding cutting out of the paper so as never to be forgotten. I even read Dave Jennings when he is writing on Irish football and hurling, even when he is playing the part of tipster. Not that I have ever put actual money down on one of his choices. I may be cabbage-looking but not so foolish to bet my money on the advice of someone who is fourth, fifth or sixth pick when his employer is in need of a tipster. He has tipped winners, apparently, but not to the point where he is paraded on the front page as having tipped a long-price winner the previous day.
David Jennings is, though, first choice in the front line when it comes to being a columnist. Admire him enormously as a racing writer, especially when he is writing about National Hunt, his first love, I believe, with words about the flat season a convenient way to help pay the mortgage.
So, as with everyone, though mostly Racing Post journalists, he has a right to his opinion. I would not be penning this nonsense if he had said the truth of the matter, that Ambiente Friendly was simply not good enough, that there were two horses better than him in yesterday’s Irish Derby, as there was one horse too good for him at Epsom. As David Elsworth once rebuked the media after Barnbrook Again had finished second in the King George at Kempton. “If he didn’t stay, he stayed better than the horses he beat.”
This protection of the reputation of a horse needs to be debated. A horse gets beaten a nose and the quote afterwards is nearly always ‘didn’t quite stay.’ Not, as is the truth of the matter, on the day there was a horse just a little bit better. On another day, over the same distance on the same racecourse, the result might be reversed. 
If Ambiente Friendly were to run next in a lesser race over 12-furlongs, would anyone bet on another runner due to the perception of David Jennings that ‘the horse clearly did not stay at both Epsom and the Curragh, though, of course, no one after Epsom offered the perception that the horse was not so much beaten by a superstar but by the distance.
If you argue that at the top level Ambiente Friendly does not get the 12-furlongs then I would offer no debate on the matter, though I would suggest it might be the same over 10-furlongs, that the truth is the horse is a gallant trier but he will always fail at the top-level due to being that little bit below that class.
When it comes to distance, horses are too pigeon-holed these days. In Australia, flat horses will be campaigned over different distances during the season. It also used to be the case with National Hunt horses, especially in Ireland. Flyingbolt went from the Champion 2-mile Chase and the Champion Hurdle to the Irish Grand National under top weight. Ambiente Friendly, in the right races, would no doubt win over any distance from 8-furlongs to 14-furlongs and only time will tell what his optimum distance will be and that, no doubt, if the Gredley family keep him in training, will only be discovered as a four or five-year-old. For now, all I will say is Ambiente Friendly definitely stays 12-furlongs, though he might prove better at 10, though I doubt it, and that he most likely prove to be just short of being a Group 1 horse.