CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR RONAN & IT IS A STUPID WOKE-LIKE RULE.

Apparently, someone in London found a container recently in which were a few old coins and a hand-written note saying the money was winnings from backing Santa Claus in the 1964 Derby and advising the finder of the container to back Christmas Day in a future Derby. A prank, no doubt. But a story that will always be associated with Ronan Whelan's day in the limelight of an extremely inclement day.

The weather, especially in Britain, is a great sporting leveller and we will not know until further into the season whether the best horse won or simply the horse that coped best with the underfoot conditions prevailed. What is for certain is that Christmas Day now joins Santa Claus as one of the most inappropriately named winners of the Epsom Derby. Whether he joins the Coolmore roster of stallions as a straight-to-jumps stallion will be determined by how Christmas Day fares in his next few races and if he can win a Group 1 over the sexy distance of 10-furlongs. He was obviously a fair way down the pecking order at Ballydoyle, a long way behind Constitution River and Benvenuto Cellini and no doubt Hawk Mountain and Pierre Bonnard, before yesterday and I always think that when a third, fourth or fifth string wins a classic for Ballydoyle it causes a rapid rethink by Aidan and 'the lads'.

I suspect the 2026 Epsom Derby will be considered a poor renewal by the 'experts' with many of the beaten runners no doubt laid low for the rest of the season after what for immature 3-year-olds was a gruelling race. I would be surprised if many winners come out of the race this season. Not that Ronan Whelan will care too much about the future of the horses that finished behind him, even if in that future he will be unlikely to put his leg over Christmas Day in earnest again. If the horse lines up in the Irish Derby, especially on ground with ease in it, he will not be the Ballydoyle first string, if Constitution River or Benvenuto Cellini should both head to The Curragh, with Moore and Lordan getting on the more fancied runners. But Whelan is now an Epsom Derby winning jockey and in a far better place in his career to build on his success than the jockeys who won the Derby for Ballydoyle on the complete outsiders Wings of Eagles and Serpentine.

Aidan, of course, just goes from success to immortality. 50 British classics. 57 Irish classics. 13 French classics. 32 Derbys, 17 at The Curragh, 12 at Epsom, 3 at Chantilly. Aidan first, the rest nowhere!

Epsom have nothing to apologise for when it came to the weather yesterday. The weather gods were just not on their side. The B.H.A. and the stewards officiating yesterday need a kick up the arse for declaring Benvenuto Cellini a non-runner for betting purposes due to him starting the race with a hind leg resting on a ledge in the starting stalls. No matter the confusion it caused bookmakers or the hole it put in their profits, this is a woke rule that is stupid as it lays open the possibility that any horse who comes out of the stalls slowly can be, by definition of this rule, deemed to have lost its chance in the race due to whatever caused it to give away ground. Horse stumbles as gates open - punters did not get a fair chance to win their bet. Rears up as gates open, ditto, Horse stumbles inside the first furlong and jockey falls-off, not fair to punters. Horse bangs head on gate as stalls open. Jockey slow to remove hood. Horse plants itself for a moment or two and only concents to set off in pursuit when others have gone a hundred-yards. There are a great number of such incidents that cause a punter not to have an equal chance of winning. This rule is like a child being rewarded for bad behaviour with an ice cream on the basis than when its lips are in the cone it might well shut the little miscreant up for a few precious minutes.

The starter could not be expected to see that Benvenuto Cellini was playing silly buggers and Ryan Moore only noticed the cocked-leg a moment before the stalls opened and he may have wanted to be in better position going up the hill but the truth is he had every opportunity of winning if the horse had been good enough. This was not a sprint, as was the case with Harry Angel and in both cases it was the horse itself that put the hoof on the ledge, it was not the result of incompetence by any human element. This is a team sport, with the horse and jockey a key element of that team. 

This is a wokeish and stupid rule that needs to be rectified at the next meeting of the B.H.A. It is a rule that opens up possibilities that might easily spiral out-of-control for the precedent it creates.