The early runnings of the Irish Derby did not suggest it was an event with a big future. Four of the first seven races attracted only three runners, and another, in 1868, had two. Madeira, a 2-1 chance, beat the 1-3 favourite Bee Quick “in a canter”, winning £115 for connections. It was nearly half a century before the first prize reached four figures.
Every great race has to start somewhere and the stakes will be considerably higher when a field of eight runners goes to post at The Curragh on Saturday for Ireland’s most important Flat race. The 150th running since the Irish Derby’s debut in 1866 will be worth €725,000 to the winner and €1.25m in all, and a long list of guests who have played a part in its history – or, in some cases, their descendants – will be there to mark its century and a half.
“There is a celebratory lunch at The Curragh on Saturday and a lot of people who have been involved through the years for different reasons will be there,” Denis Egan, the chief executive of Ireland’s Turf Club, said on Friday.
“There will be relations of Bing Crosby, who was the co-owner of the winner [Meadow Court] in 1965, a lot of the jockeys who have ridden winners in the past like Cash Asmussen, Michael Kinane and Lester Piggott, and owners like Mrs [Virginia] Kraft Payson, who owned St Jovite, who ran the fastest Derby ever.”
The 150th Irish Derby also promises to be an interesting and competitive event, after a couple of recent renewals that bore more relation to the races of the mid-1860s. Last season, when the 1-8 favourite Australia was barely off the bridle to beat only four opponents and follow up his win in the Derby at Epsom, was a new low for recent years in terms of strength in depth, but Camelot’s win at 1-5 in 2012 also did little to quicken the pulse.
The introduction of several “win-and-you’re-in” entries via qualifying races seems to have had an immediate effect on the quality of the field, however, with the appropriately named Qualify, the 50-1 winner of the Oaks at Epsom, in the lineup as a result. Dermot Weld’s unbeaten colt Radanpour also gained an entry by winning the King George V Cup at Leopardstown earlier this month.
“The win-and-you’re-in incentive has been very successful already,” Paul Hensey, The Curragh’s general manager, said. “We also have the second, third and fourth from the Epsom Derby, the second from the Jockey-Club [French Derby, Highland Reel], and the winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial [Kilimanjaro].
“The race rating has been very solid over the years, despite a number of small fields, but being the third significant Derby in Europe after Epsom and Chantilly, you’re always susceptible when there’s a superstar horse the other three-year-olds will avoid taking on.
“That’s what happened in Camelot’s year and Australia’s year as well. That was partly behind the thinking on the initiatives to make it attractive for others to have a go and also not be put off by supplementary costs for horses that weren’t in the initial entries.”
“Qualify probably wouldn’t be running had it not been for the initiative so on her case alone, you would have to say it’s been a success, but it’s also interesting that the winners of the two 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket [Legatissimo] and in Ireland [Pleascach] going head-to-head in the Pretty Polly Stakes on Sunday, so we have three fillies’ Classic winners in action here over the weekend.”Jack Hobbs, who finished three-and-a-half lengths behind his stablemate Golden Horn in the Derby at Epsom, is expected to go off as the slight odds-on favouriteon Saturday, though he will be attempting to break a miserable run of results for British-trained horses in Ireland’s premier Classic that stretches back to Balanchine in 1994. The seven beaten favourites from the UK in the 20 renewals since include Celtic Swing (5-4), Silver Patriarch (5-4), North Light (8-11), Tartan Bearer (evens) and Carlton House (5-4).
“There are fewer French-trained runners in the Derby than from England but since 1998 there have been three French-trained winners of the Derby in Dream Well, Hurricane Run and Montjeu,” Egan said. “Aidan O’Brien’s dominance has been a key factor. He had his first Derby winner in 1997 and the rest is history. In the last 15 years, John Oxx, Dermot Weld, André Fabre and Jim Bolger have won a Derby and all the rest were Aidan’s.”
The open, galloping expanse of The Curragh is expected to suit Jack Hobbs but the same could be said of many other form horses from Epsom who have failed here over the years. If last year’s Irish Derby was little more than a lap of honour for Australia, the 150th running promises to be the tribute this venerable Classic deserves.
