PAT HEALY: After a busy few days of racing, Pat Healy shares his thoughts on Serpentine’s surprise win in the Epsom Derby, Love’s performance in the Oaks, and the much anticipated return of Enable.
Derby reflections
There has been plenty written and spoken about in the aftermath of Serpentine’s win in the Derby and,from my perspective, I don’t think we’re giving enough credit to the horse and his jockey Emmet McNamara. Many are saying the other jockeys got it wrong, but if look at it from Oisin Murphy’s perspective. He’s riding Kameko, a horse not guaranteed to stay, and therefore he can either ride him like’s going to stay or he can nurse him around and hope he stays. Kameko was keen early which basically meant Oisin wasn’t able to nurse him around as he’d probably hoped he could. With that being the case, he can’t worry about Serpentine in front because he’s got to worry about his own horse.
It’s the same story with Frankie Dettori and English King. The horse jolts to the left as he comes out of the stalls so both horse and rider are on the backfoot straightaway. When that happens you can’t worry about what’s going on ahead of you because you need to make sure you’re back on an even keel as that’s the only way you’re going to have a chance of winning the race.
As such I don’t think it’s right to say Serpentine got a freebie out in front. Emmet has ridden his own race incredibly well and the others haven’t been able to catch him. I watched the race alongside Johnny Murtagh and he knew as they turned Tattenham Corner that they weren’t catching him. He knew Emmet had got the fractions right and if Johnny is complementing a jockey that’s good enough for me!
It’s Aidan O’Brien’s eighth win in the race and interestingly only three of them have been with the favourite which shows that any runner Aidan saddles deserves the utmost respect. It’s an incredible achievement to break the record and I don’t think many would be surprised if he wins plenty more. It was brilliant for young Emmet who was Champion Apprentice in 2008 and remarkably his last winner before Serpentine was in October 2019. It’s just his ninth ride of the season and he deserves plenty of plaudits for the ride he gave the winner.
Serpentine’s win means both the Derby and Cheltenham Gold Cup have been won by two protégés of the pony racing game in Ireland in Emmet and Paul Townend. If you go back 15 years, the pair were plying their trade at places like Castleisland, Ballingarry and Dingle and now they are winning two of our sport’s biggest races. It’s a real compliment to the pony racing industry in Ireland to see jockeys like Emmet and Paul doing so well.
Love conquers all
I, like many, was blown away by Love’s performance in the Oaks. She’s clearly an absolute monster and to my mind she’ll be horse of the year. Based on the sectionals, she would have won the Derby which shows just how good a filly she. Ryan [Moore] really didn’t get busy on her and she really looks to have the world at her feet this season and hopefully moving forward. I just hope they keep her in training next year because it would be brilliant to see her as a four-year-old. If she rocks up in the Arc, we could see her take on Magical and Enable and I don’t think we’ll have ever had three fillies of the class of those three racing against each other – it could be a race for the ages.
Enable’s back
It was great to see Enable back in action in the Eclipse at Sandown and I thought she put in a more than satisfactory performance. Of course John Gosden will be disappointed she didn’t win, but I’m sure he’ll be happy that she didn’t have a hard race. She looked to enjoy herself and I’m sure she’ll come on plenty when we see her at Ascot for the King George.
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