was there ever a more golden period than 1968-1972?

​I refer to the Epsom Derby, of course. Those with encyclopaedic memories or form books extending back to the beginning of Timeform and beyond, will doubtless raise a persuasive argument against me. Until then I will claim that the years between 1968 and 1972 sparkled so brightly that even someone with as poor a memory as myself can recall their glory. (clearing throat) With the aid of Stewart Peters book ‘Derby Days’.
I was going to extend ‘the golden period’ to 1967, the first Derby I can recall watching on t.v. As a schoolboy, I remember running home from school – 3-miles from home – to watch Arkle in Cheltenham Gold Cups but not to watch a Derby. I was thirteen in 1967 and I suspect I was canny enough by then to fake illness on big race days that fell midweek.
Royal Palace won in 1967, ridden by Aussie jockey George Moore and trained by Noel Murless. To this callow youth he looked a real stunner, a horse for the age, though history perhaps records him as not in the highest of echelons as apart from the second and third, Ribocco and Dart Board, the beaten horses did not amount to much.
1968, of course, was the year of Sir Ivor. Don’t ask me why, as I am a shy cinema goer, but I never truly appreciated Sir Ivor’s turn of foot until I watched a film of this race in a cinema in Newmarket. Sandy Barclay, a teenager at the time, was in tears after the race as he thought he was a certain winner of the race on Connaught right up to the shadow of the winning post only for Lester to sweep by, the horse doing the proverbial handstands and Lester calculating that year’s tax returns.
Sir Ivor looked a world-beater that day and was always Lester’s answer when asked the best horse he ever rode, though he occasionally, I believe, prefaced his reply with, ‘on his day’. Sir Ivor was beaten in his next four races, including the Irish Derby, without the aid of Lester, and the Arc, with the aid of Lester. He did finish his career winning the Washington International, after which Lester’s riding tactics were derided by U.S. racing commentators. As always, Lester had the last laugh. After trying to avoid the press mob, when finally cornered and asked ‘when did you think you had the race won’, Lester replied, ‘about two-weeks ago’. 
The second, third and fourth, were horses of reasonable ability, Connaught, Mount Athos and Remand, but, other than Sir Ivor, it was not a vintage Derby. But Derby’s rarely are. 
1969 was a strange year in comparison to the golden years before and after. 26-ran that year and was won by a horse having only its second run of its life, Blakeney. I doubt you could have produced a poorer bunch of Derby runners as those that Blakeney beat, though, of course, in 1973, during the same period of racing history, Arthur Budget trained the 1973 Derby winner, a half-brother to his 1969 winner, Morston, also only having his second racecourse experience. So, for that fact alone, perhaps my golden period should extend to 1973.
The golden treasure came in 1970. The first flat horse to blow me away. Nijinsky. I even had a painting of him for a Christmas present, such was my esteem. Only eleven faced the starter in 1970, such was the pre-eminence of Vincent O’Brien’s champion. He won, beating perhaps less quality opposition than Sir Ivor, with the sort of contemptuous ease that only a Lester Piggott ridden horse could achieve.
Nijinsky went on to win the Irish Derby and won the King George & Queen Elisabeth at Ascot in the most-commonest of canters you’ll ever witness in a Group 1 from what was described as ‘a star-studded field’ that included Blakeney. And, let it be said, Nijinsky is the last horse to win the British Triple Crown of 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St.Leger, and I doubt I’ll live to see another colt achieve the same. His defeat in the Arc broke my heart. Lester may have cocked-up his legendary waiting tactics that day but they had worked to perfection in every other race Nijinsky contested. If his owner was not dying of cancer Nijinsky would have remained in training as a four-year-old and what epics of racing history that might have provided.
The most under-rated horse of my lifetime achieved glory in 1971. Whenever wet-behind-the-ears racing commentators list the great flat horses, the name of Mill Reef is usually omitted. His defeat to Brigadier Gerard in the 2,000 Guineas determines my belief that the latter is the greatest flat horse of my lifetime as no other contender for the title beat a horse as good as Mill Reef. 
Mill Reef was a good winner of a Derby field that comprised 21-runners. It was an okay field quality-wise, though no Derby is ever jam-packed with quality. I would say that Epsom did not see Mill Reef at his finest. He was better when winning the Eclipse, absolutely flawless in winning the King George at Ascot and better still when triumphing in the Arc.
If fate had been kinder, in 1971 we might have had a King George and Arc contested by both Nijinsky and Mill Reef and in 1972 we could have had a King George rematch between Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard. I have to admit these three horses are my favourite flat horses of all-time.
I include 1972 in my golden period as the winner was Roberto, no doubt a brilliant horse on his day, though far too inconsistent to be considered as anywhere close to the equal of Nijinsky, Sir Ivor, Mill Reef or even Brigadier Gerard, even though Roberto achieved the shock of generations when he beat a slightly under-par Brigadier Gerard in the Benson & Hedges at York. And, at Epsom, he beat a future Arc winner in Rheingold, though little else of Group 1 quality.
I very much doubt if the 2023 Epsom Derby winner will be of the quality to list alongside the equine gods of 1968, 1970 and 1971. This years victor will go down (I hope not, though I fear) as the winner of the delayed, possibly postponed, year of the Animal Rising Epsom Derby. First horse racing, then 3-day Eventing, Show Jumping, dressage, and then no horses at all, an entire species wiped-out by people who believe they care more than anyone else! Then, no cats, no dogs. No pet rabbits. No parrots. Humans separated from animals.