THE 1986 EPSOM DERBY HOO-HA & ONE, TWO, THREE.

I will get this chestnut out of the way from the get-go: I do not believe that horses retired to stud after their 3-year-old careers should be included in the list of great racehorses to have run on the flat. This is why, even though I believe them to the best of their generation, I refuse to put the likes of Sea The Stars and Dancing Brave on the same page as Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef or Frankel. And nothing any racing clever-clogs can say will get me to change my mind.

In today's Racing Post, Julian Muscat has a fine analysis of the 1986 Epsom Derby, a 40-year reflection of a race that will stay a talking point not because of the winner but of the horse that finished second.

Dancing Brave was the top horse of 1986, of that there is no doubt. He could have easily enhanced his reputation if he had been kept in training as a 4-year-old, as all great 3-year-olds should do, especially as he finished his classic year by being beaten fair and square in the Breeders Cup. He was, of course, a spectacular winner of the Arc, a race Racing Post readers stupidly voted 'the greatest ever race'. Idiots one and all. Dancing Brave, is though, more remembered for the Derby he should have won and did not. But was it down to the ride given to him by Greville Starkey?

In his biography 'To Be A Champion', Pat Eddery held no blame at the feet of Starkey. 'I am convinced this (the criticism of the press) was unfair and that Greville was not to blame for getting the horse beat'. What must be remembered, yet is almost always overlooked, is that the tactics employed by Starkey at Epsom, Eddery repeated on every occasion he rode the horse. In the biography, Eddery admitted if he had ridden Dancing Brave in the Epsom Derby he would have ridden him exactly the same way. In fact, he laid the blame for Dancing Brave's defeat on a combination of the horse not acting on the track and Cash Asmussen on Guy Harwood's second-string Alles Milord pulling out in front of Dancing Brave and forcing Starkey to check his run.

What annoyed me was the lack of loyalty shown to Starkey by both the racing media and Prince Abdulla. Again, people forget that Starkey won the Eclipse on Dancing Brave and only missed the ride in the King George and Queen Elisabeth due to being injured. Guy Harwood wanted Starkey to retain the ride in the Arc but was over-ruled by the owner. Even if you are in the 'Starkey done wrong' camp, surely you must admit that any one of us should be allowed to make poor judgement every now and again. Pat Eddery was the top jockey around at the time and he would have ridden Dancing Brave the same as Starkey chose to do as he also believed at the time that it was important to save energy as he also held doubts the horse would be as effective over 12-furlongs. 

Horse racing is a team sport, to win a classic the horse must be a willing partner, the trainer must have the horse in perfect health and 100% fit and the jockey must ride the perfect race to enhance the chances of success to 100%. What is also required on the day is lady luck smiling down on you. On that day in June, 1986, lady luck turned her face away from Starkey. The sadness is that Greville Starkey went to his grave still embittered by the treatment metered out to him by a racing press that perhaps to a man had their fingers burned by Shahrastani passing the post first and not Dancing Brave.

Ryan Moore gets things wrong occasionally, as proved by not winning either the English or Irish 1,000-Guineas this season. He got things right yesterday, though, at Chantilly. Not as right as Aidan O'Brien, of course, but not even Ryan is capable of riding three horses in one race. 1st Constitution River, trained by Aidan O'Brien. 2nd Hawk Mountain, trained by Aidan O'Brien, 3rd Montreal,  trained by Aidan O'Brien. He also sired the trainer of the fourth, the ill-named A Boy Named Susie.

It is not so flaming irritating when Aidan dominates French racing as when he is bagging every big trophy this side of the English Channel. He is one of us when his horses take on the French on their home soil. I even applaud when he wins at the Breeders Cup. I just do not want him to do the same as he achieved yesterday at Epsom next Friday and Saturday.

As for the merit of the form yesterday, I sit on the wall. Undoubtedly, from his wide draw, Constitution River gained kudos for winning when having to give away so much ground and for having to use up early energy to achieve a good position in behind his stable companions. On the bare form the winner is only fractions in front of his three stable-mates and I was particularly impressed by how Montreal stuck to the task after making most of the running. I will not be putting the crown of wonder on Constitution River's head just yet, as I refused to do with Field of Gold last season. 

Aidan, though I complain about his over-the-top and unproven early season rhetoric about the horses he trains, talk I remain convinced is more about the stallion catalogue than the form-book, is, as everyone must concede, a bloody irritating genius of a trainer. Ryan Moore, with little irritating about him, ain't half special himself.