What's Another Year

It seems the Irish Derby's fate is to be slammed for being either uncompetitive or lacking star quality. As a species we're apparently genetically programmed to better recall the negative rather than the positive. But racing fans seems to contradict that. Most years the Irish Derby gets bemoaned in comparison to glories of the past. That's unfair. It's also important to keep in mind there's nothing wrong with the race. It's just events, dear boy, events.

The ideal Irish Derby scenario, the type nostalgia so fondly recalls, is of a Generous V Suave Dancer situation: an English Derby winner taking on a French Derby winner in an epic competition between two outstanding talents on the Curragh. And it was brilliant. It was also 27 years ago. Annually comparing the Derby to rare vintage renewals of the past is unrealistic.

It's a different ball game now. Since 2005 and its reduction in trip the Prix Du Jockey Club has largely become an irrelevance to the Irish Derby in terms of its winners progressing to the Curragh. Ballydoyle's overwhelming influence over the last two decades is also a factor. So is the increasing attraction of the Eclipse with a view to an Epsom Derby winner's future stud value.

Masar's absence will be sorely felt this year. But it's important to keep in mind how three of the last four Epsom heroes lined up at the Curragh. Events go for you or they don't. A decade ago only a late injury forced New Approach's defection on the morning of the race. A year later the elements, and some over-enthusiastic watering, prevented Sea The Stars running.

The Irish Derby's roll-of-honour is a lustrous one even if some of the names enjoyed little more than a lucrative stroll around the Curragh. That got flak. So did the inclusion of some less than legendary names. What kind of fire the 2018 renewal attracts remains to be seen.

Saxon Warrior might yet live up the expectations somewhat prematurely placed on him. Maybe Dee Ex Bee will turn this Derby into a Coolmore-Darley face-off to relish. Or maybe it will turn into a bit of an anti-climax. But these are the sort of events the happen every year. Cribbing that it's not like some other year is futile. Some things are simply out of the Curragh's control.

What isn't is how the country's richest race, and the shop-window contest of an entire industry, will once again be run a building site.

Yes, cribbing about it is futile now. And yes the site looks a lot more presentable than a year ago. Sure enough the instinct to move on and just get on with it has kicked in. And that's an admirable instinct in many ways. But it still doesn't vindicate an insular, expedient and short-sighted call to treat the racing public as superfluous.

No more than 6,000 will be allowed on-site at the Derby. We know that now because the Curragh reportedly conceded it after months performing an elaborate fan-dance with what is basic information.

No doubt the place will be resplendent for those boots that are on the ground. The Derby has always hosted the great and the good and this year that could include the new HRI chairman Nick Hartery.

The procedure leading up his appointment has generated some comment recently with suggestions it was a done-deal for a long time with any rigmarole around the Public Appointments Service merely being another sort of fan dance for appearances sake.

However an admittedly cursory look at the state guidelines suggest such appointments ultimately come down to a Minister's discretion anyway. And it would hardly be the first in Ireland that the job was filled long before it was advertised!

Ascot 2018 has been and gone with general relief that no headlines about fighting scumbags were generated. Thankfully instead it was a pretty much picture perfect postcard for the sport with Frankie Dettori setting up any number of priceless shots for the multitudes of royal watchers and reminding those in the game he's still not too shabby when it comes to the day-job.

The cold-eyed competitor behind the froth can get forgotten sometimes with Dettori. And while he might not be one to have onside in a six grand handicap at Pontefract, this Ascot proved once again he's still at the top of the tree when it counts most. And when he's on a roll there's no one better. His Gold Cup winning ride on Stradivarius was a beauty.

The relatively slow early tempo helped a suspect stayer. That the horse was doing too much in his hands didn't help at all. But Dettori nursed and then nursed some more until immediately sizing up his greatest threat as being Vazirabad. That he didn't fully commit and provide a target to the less than resolute French horse was a masterpiece of nuanced race-riding.

Apparently Dettori has the example of Mike Smith landing the US Triple Crown at 52 in his mind as a career model. That would mean he has at least five more years ahead of him. We should relish such a singular talent while we can. And maybe marvel at how he was commonly dismissed as a washout in 2013 and just a few weeks from retirement.

It was also interesting to note Dettori's response last week when quizzed as to the finest rival he's ridden against: he didn't miss a beat - Mick Kinane. Racing might have its own form of selective memory in recalling the good but just keep in mind how cool a professional opinion was behind that statement.

Another figure to stand the test of time is Sir Michael Stoute who broke the Royal Ascot record with aplomb, saddling four winners during the week.

It's ironic, given his apparently fractious relationship with the British media, that Stoute's original professional ambition when arriving from Barbados in the 1960's was to be a journalist/broadcaster. Instead he got a job as assistant trainer to the Yorkshire based Irishman Pat Rohan and the rest is history.

"It was a wonderful grounding. You can go to a lot of yards and work your backside off and never really get inside a trainer's head," Stoute has recalled of his days with Rohan. "I got lucky. His secretary had just left and so I went into the office every evening after working all day in the stables. I became involved in Pat's thinking and conversation with owners."

Yet it was Aidan O'Brien who was crowned Royal Ascot's 'Leading Trainer' for a ninth time despite what he conceded was a less than vintage meeting for Ballydoyle. What was really notable was the absence of a two year old winner. That might be viewed as a worrying portent by some. More realistically it might simply mean a wet Spring has delayed some juvenile development for the time being.

And finally, a tip of the cap to former champion jockey Declan McDonogh and passing out the thousand winner mark in the saddle. It's no mean feat for anyone anywhere. But it's especially so in such a competitive racing environment as here.