Just after the presentation of the trophy for the Derby had been made and the traditional photos had been taken in the winners’ circle, Aidan O’Brien turned away and scratched his head. He was not the only one. He came to Epsom with a posse of runners but not in his dreams did he believe that Wings Of Eagles, one of the least heralded of his six contenders, would yield his sixth win in the race. The morning headlines had been dominated by the late withdrawal of the controversial no-hoper, Diore Lia, but a Derby billed as wide open lived up to its name by producing a winner so far from the thoughts of anyone other than jockey, Paddy Beggy, that you have to go back to 50-1 Snow Knight in 1974 to find a Derby winner at longer odds.
Beggy has had to pick himself up a few times in his 31 years, but not even Lester Piggott, one of the guests of honour on the day, could have ridden a cooler or more calculated race. The temptation for all jockeys having their first ride round a ferociously difficult one and a half miles of Epsom Downs is to move too soon, but Beggy waited and waited, following and finally outdoing Ryan Moore on Cliffs Of Moher within sight of the line, to claim the richest prize in the British racing calendar by a cosy three-quarters of a length.
Beggy barely raised a smile, barely moved a muscle, certainly didn’t raise a whip or punch the air on passing the most famous winning post in racing on a 40-1 outsider, but he could not wipe the broad grin off his face thereafter. Just three years ago, he was serving a year-long ban in Australia for testing positive for cocaine and giving false evidence in the subsequent case. He returned to Ireland and was given another chance by O’Brien at Ballydoyle, one he took with both hands yesterday.
“He’s a brilliant rider, a world-class rider,” said O’Brien. “He’s strong and he’s got a good mind. He’s tactically very aware. I can’t tell you how delighted we are to have him riding for us.”
Even before the strange result, this was a strange Derby field, dominated by the big battalions: six runners from Coolmore, five trained by John Gosden and three wearing the blue colours of Godolphin. Coolmore once ran eight without winning the race and, as a general rule, rely on sheer numbers when they do not have a genuine Derby horse. This year was no different, though their number one contender, Cliffs Of Moher, did pretty well everything other than win. But even the utterly meticulous O’Brien was dredging his memory to summon a rationale for the unlikely triumph of Wings Of Eagles.
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“He was a nice horse last year and he ran a lovely race at Chester last time,” said the trainer. But this was only the colt’s second win in six starts and he had been well beaten by Venice Beach in the Chester Vase on his seasonal return. “You never really know going into this race,” the trainer added. “They are all bred for it and until you test them over a mile and a half you don’t know how they will do. Anything can happen.”
Wings Of Eagles brought O’Brien and Coolmore their fourth win in six years, an unprecedented run of success which has caused some muttering about unhealthy monopolies. The irony, not lost on Coolmore, is that after all the pre-race talk of Galileo’s dominance of the breeding lines — 10 of the 18-strong field had Galileo as a father or grandfather — and the rise of Frankel, sire of fourth-finishing Eminent, the winner was sired by Pour Moi, who won the 2011 Derby with an equally stunning late flourish.
Cliffs Of Moher, who sweated up badly on the way to the start, lost little in defeat and Moore must have been as surprised as anyone by the identity of the horse sweeping past him. “I thought I had it won,” said the three-time champion.
Cracksman, backed down to 7-2 favouritism, broke fast under Frankie Dettori and was in the vanguard for most of the way as Douglas Macarthur and The Anvil, O’Brien’s two pacemakers, opened up a big lead going down Tattenham Hill. Douglas Macarthur was still going strongly halfway down the long straight as Cracksman loomed on his outside and Eminent began a promising run down the centre of the track. Beggy, though, had Cliffs Of Moher in his sights and a touch more horse beneath him, while Jim Crowley on Eminent was squeezed for room.
This, though, was Beggy’s day. The worst thing, he said, about his positive test in Australia was telling his family the bad news. “I said to my brother: ‘I’ll be back. You’re going to hear plenty more of me.’” Once back in the swing of racing in his native Ireland, Beggy had to be patient, waiting his turn behind a handful of riders, young and old, at Ballydoyle. “I don’t get to ride beasts like these very often on the racetrack, not on days like this,” he said. “But I felt a furlong out that if I got a good run, I would win.” Benbatl, in fifth, finished the best of Godolphin’s three runners but Dubai Thunder, the subject of a mighty gamble, found the whole occasion too much. Padraig Beggy enjoyed every moment of his big day.
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Epsom Derby 1-2-3
1 Wings Of Eagles
(Padraig Beggy)
40-1
2 Cliffs Of Moher
(Ryan Moore)
5-1
3 Cracksman
(Frankie Dettori)
7-2 fav