A HORSE named after the court of a king proved a fitting winner to set before the Queen at the start of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Camelot was unaware how much was resting on his handsome head, not just as the shortest-priced favourite to win the Derby since Gainsborough (also 8-13) in 1918, but as a horse to grace a day of pomp, patriotism and pageantry. This might not have been a great race but Camelot is on the cusp of being a truly great champion. If the connections at Coolmore are true to their word, the son of Montjeu will head to Doncaster for the St Leger on September 15 with an odds-on chance of becoming the first horse since Nijinsky in 1970 to win the Triple Crown.
By adding the Investec Derby to the 2,000 Guineas, Camelot has already joined exclusive company. In the past 50 years, apart from Nijinsky, only Royal Palace (1967), Sir Ivor (1968), Nashwan (1989) and Sea The Stars (2009) have completed that illustrious double. But there were other significant comparisons to be made in the tall, slender form of Joseph O’Brien, the 19-year-old son of trainer Aidan O’Brien, who has given new meaning to the phrase “to the manor born”.
Since graduating, if that is the right word, to the job of stable jockey to one of the mightiest racing empires in the world, young Joseph has ridden nine Group One winners and, in the past month, displayed the maturity and nerve of a veteran in claiming two English Classics. Only eight Derby winners now separate the young man from another quietly spoken, poker-faced, champion, but the idea of placing O’Brien Jr in the same sentence as Lester Piggott did not seem quite so absurd after the teenager had brought the favourite with the sort of sweeping, unfussy run down the centre of the track that characterised Lester’s eternal domination of Epsom Downs.
Anne-Marie, Joseph’s mother, had met Piggott during the week. “Lester said, ‘Tell Joseph not to be in any hurry’ and I knew when I saw Camelot coming that he had timed it perfectly.”
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Like Lester, who won his first Derby on Never Say Die at the age of 18 in 1954, Joseph betrayed precious little emotion in the five-length win, which takes his father to the edge of an unprecedented clean sweep of English Classics. The O’Briens rewrite history with the delicacy of medieval monks.
“When you are on a short-priced favourite for the Derby there is always pressure,” said Joseph. “The key was to get Camelot to relax and get him into a rhythm. He was quite green coming down the hill. It wasn’t that he didn’t handle the track, he’d just never experienced a track like this with the undulations and the camber. But to win the Derby on a horse like Camelot is very special.”
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At Newmarket in the Guineas, Joseph had told his father not to worry if Camelot was nearer last than first at halfway. “I’m learning to listen to Joseph now,” Aidan said afterwards. But the thought must have returned to the trainer as he watched Camelot lob down Tattenham Hill with only one of the nine runners behind him.
For a moment, as stablemate Astrology set sail for home under Ryan Moore, the prospect of another Ballydoyle upset to match the win of Was in the Oaks on Friday flitted into view. But Joseph had calculated the pace with precision, as his mother noted, and though Camelot did look a bit clumsy entering the straight — “he was looking where to put his feet,” explained O’Brien Jr — the jockey wisely took his time to gather the colt before setting him alight for the final two furlongs.
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If the response was not electric, it was persuasive enough and long before the line O’Brien, who had switched his whip from right to left hand to stop Camelot from drifting towards the rails, could savour the moment. Main Sequence, a first Derby runner for David Lanigan, just pipped the gallant Astrology for second, but Hayley Turner will surely enjoy better days in the Epsom Derby. Her mount, Cavaleiro, could not justify the hopes of the each-way punter and finished last of the nine runners.
Camelot arrived at Epsom as potentially the hottest favourite for 50 years and despite the fact that the past three odds-on favourites — El Gran Senor, Tenby and Entrepreneur — had all been defeated, little coherent argument could be mounted against the credentials of the 2,000 Guineas winner, the horse even O’Brien, the supreme trainer of champions, has privately rated the best he’s seen.
The majestic performance of St Nicholas Abbey, another son of Montjeu, in retaining the Coronation Cup brought little comfort to Camelot’s main rivals and when Bonfire, the winner of the Dante, forfeited his chance by heading to post like a bullet, the field was left largely clear for O’Brien to claim his first Derby winner since High Chaparral, 10 years and 39 runners ago. For Montjeu, the ratio is rather more telling. This was the great sire’s fourth Derby winner in seven years.
Camelot is likely to be put away for the summer before bidding to emulate Nijinsky in the St Leger and revive the pure but old-fashioned concept of the Triple Crown, once the ultimate prize in Flat racing. He is 1-3 with most bookmakers to complete the hat-trick.
“Wouldn’t anybody want to win the Triple Crown?” asked John Magnier, one of the owners of Coolmore. “These things get to mean more as you get older.” They might have to explain what such feats mean to young Joseph.