PAT HEALY: Only one place for Pat to start this week’s blog. At Epsom and Auguste Rodin’s Derby win for the maestro Aidan O’Brien …
Auguste Rodin proves Derby doubters wrong
I’ve been lucky enough to photograph all Aidan O’Brien’s Derby wins from Galileo in 2001 all the way up to Auguste Rodin last Saturday. Any day an Irish horse wins the English Derby is a fantastic day.
I have to say, when Auguste Rodin passed the winning line in Epsom, I had a smile to myself. What a genius, what a man, what a training performance.
I think the reason I smiled was because Aidan had a lot of doubters; I don’t think people really believed what he kept saying about Auguste Rodin being the horse that he is. I think some people would have been thinking that this is Aidan hyping the horse up for marketing.
The Guineas was always going to be a big ask. At the press day at the end of March, Aidan said that, but he also made no secret of his love for this horse.
It was just a magnificent performance from Auguste Rodin, with Ryan Moore at his imperious best once again. He gave Aidan his ninth Epsom Derby success. Just to be living and going racing in the Aidan O’Brien era is brilliant for Irish racing and for Irish people. Who’s to know where the ceiling is for this horse now. It’s going to be fascinating to see where he goes next.
We also have to give huge credit to King Of Steel for his massive run for Roger Varian and to John Murphy and Jessica Harrington, who had White Birch and Sprewell run blinders to finish third and fourth.
Both White Birch and Sprewell are clearly very decent horses and are entitled to go to the Curragh for the Irish Derby.
Derby protests
With the whole controversy with the animal rights protestors, I thought the Epsom Racecourse management team did a fantastic job.
Thankfully everything went off without a real hitch. We all saw the one fella who ran onto the track, but thankfully he was quickly removed in a matter of seconds.
Being involved with a racecourse myself, you’re always worried that something is going to go horribly wrong on your biggest day, so I was delighted that everything went well for the Epsom Racecourse team.
Frankie’s Friday
Friday belonged to Frankie [Dettori] after he won the two Group 1s with Emily Upjohn and Soul Sister.
Emily Upjohn was desperately unlucky last year to be chinned on the line by Tuesday in the Oaks, but she gained ample compensation by winning the Coronation Cup.
Soul Sister was awfully impressive in the Oaks. She won well in the Musidora in York, and she’s obviously a really smart filly.
Of course, we’re now halfway through Frankie’s final year. If he had written the script himself in January before his retirement year really kicked it into gear, he couldn’t have wished for everything to go as well as it’s going.
He’s an amazing jockey, an amazing personality and we all need to embrace and enjoy the last few months of Frankie Dettori while we can.
Big thanks to Big Muiris
There was a train strike in London last weekend, which made travelling more difficult than normal. I have to give a big shout out to my pal, Big Muiris, originally from Cahersiveen in County Kerry. Big Muiris would be a recognisable man on the racetracks of England, as he goes racing a lot.
He collected me, took me to Epsom and dropped me back at Heathrow. Fair play to him, it was great not to have to think about getting buses or tubes or taxis to and from the races. I was back home in Kerry at 9pm on Saturday night. It was much appreciated.
Listowel June Meeting
Saturday, Sunday and Monday we had our first meeting of the season at Listowel.
Of course, with the scorching weather, the one thing that we had to worry about was ground conditions. It’s our new Clerk of the Course, Paul Moloney’s, first race meeting and thankfully our head groundsman, Dan O’Connell, and all the ground staff did a wonderful job of watering the track.
We’ve been watering since last Wednesday. I don’t think people realise what hard going it is on the staff and the guys who do it during the night. There’s such a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
Everybody was delighted and the course looked in great nick. We had two Flat days at the weekend and on Monday a National Hunt card, and there were no complaints.
We had a fantastic crowd on Sunday and again on Monday, so the three-day June Bank Holiday fixture has been a great success and we were all delighted at Listowel.
Until next week.
PAT
