Jamie Codd© Photo Healy Racing
With wins at the Cheltenham Festival and over Aintree's famous Grand National fences to his name, Jamie Codd can now boast one at Epsom Downs after making his first visit to the track a winning one with victory aboard Hubertas in the Amateur Derby.
While Cheltenham in March will always remain the Holy Grail for National Hunt riders, there was a smile of satisfaction on the face of the highly-accomplished pilot after ticking off a winner at the home of the Derby and Oaks from his 'to do' list.
Despite his lack of experience of the unique track, Codd showed no signs of letting the occasion get the better of him when galvanising the 3-1 favourite to glory for the first time this campaign.
Having had just the one runner behind him early on, the four-year-old stealthily moved through the field to put himself in contention approaching the final quarter of a mile, as early runaway leader Leyland tamely folded.
After hitting the front travelling strongly, the John Quinn-trained gelding was quickly forced to come under maximum pressure to go through with his effort as Jupiter Custos and James King moved up to throw down one last challenge.
As the pair drew clear of their rivals it was the market leader that eventually obliged, with Codd getting the response he required from his partner to pull out enough and see off the Michael Scudamore-trained runner by three-quarters of a length.
The victory completed the final leg of a treble for Quinn, after he had earlier scored with Ancient Astronaut and El Astronaute.
Codd said: "It's great to come over here and do this on my first ride here. It's fantastic. John Quinn rang me last week and it didn't take too much thinking to take on the ride.
"When you see it on TV you don't think it's daunting, but when you ride it there's a massive pull for the first five furlongs and even the camber in the home straight is quite tricky.
"I was probably there too soon, but my excuse is I'm a jump jockey!"
He went on: "They all fell away so quick around two and a half to go, and I was a little bit worried I had got there and committed too early, but he stays well.
"These are the places you want to be winning at. When you are a jockey it's all about getting winners at Cheltenham, Aintree and all the big places, as you want to go showcase your talents.
"Cheltenham is our Olympics, but it nice to come here at the Derby track and ride a winner."
David O''Reilly, part of winning syndicate The Pro-Claimers, added: "We won the race three years ago with Beacon Lady with Patrick Mullins on board and a good jockey can make all the difference on a day like this.
"We brought him over especially for this as he is very good. We wanted him to come late and we thought he'd got there a bit too soon, but the race suddenly opened up in front of him.
"We thought he was going to get caught as the horse has been chinned a few times, but Jamie gave him a nice, strong ride."
