Nightmare Derby for Johnny Murtagh

Well there we have it another year and another Derby has passed, sadly New Approach did not make the line up and there can be no doubt that his absence weakened this year"s big race. It just goes to show you how difficult it is to get horses from one race to the next never mind making plans months in advance! It reinforces my theory to run horses when they are well because they wont stay well forever! Hindsight is great, but imagine if Jim Bolger did not run his colt in the Epsom Derby, his season would be fruitless and his value would now be greatly diminished. Going to post I thought for sure that both placed horses from the Epsom Classic (Tartan Bearer and Casual Conquest) would fight out the finish of Sunday"s race. That was not to be the case and what we ended up with was possibly the messiest Derby finish in history. Alessandro Volta hit the front and proceeded to give Johnny Murtagh a nightmare ride by ducking and diving all the way to the line and in the process wiping out anything in sight. Personally, I feel that the best horse on the day (Frozen Fire) won and he did it the hard way having to come around the whole field to win by two lengths. A great day for jockey Seamus Heffernan who was winning his second Derby in-a-row and completing a fantastic three in-a-row for Aidan O Brien with his sixth Derby in total. No doubt there will be much debate regarding the interference caused by Murtagh"s mount, but under no circumstances did it affect the winning of the race. The favourite, Tartan Bearer, was not good enough, but was rightly promoted ahead of the wayward Alessandro Volta to third place. That is as near as he would have finished anyway. Curtain Call was arguably the hardest done by as he was lucky to stand up after the interference he suffered and I am slightly amazed that he was not promoted ahead of the fourth horse. The talk of team tactics coming into play is total nonsense. I agree that Murtagh should not get suspended for his part as he did every thing possible to correct his horse and I believe the stewards got that right. All in all I thought it was a below par Derby and I am in no doubt that both New Approach and Henrythenavigator are exceptional three-year-olds, but the rest of this year"s crop are only average. I do hope New Approach gets back into work soon and that we see him on the track again this season. I believe if he had raced last Sunday he would not have had to come off the bridle. The Derby Festival started on Friday evening and I must admit this is one of the most enjoyable evening"s racing on the calendar, there was some good competitive racing with the Derby buzz around the place, but not the crowd! We had a busy weekend running 16 horses and although we missed out on a winner, we amassed nearly €50,000 in prizemoney. All bar a couple of our horses ran well and they will be winning more races soon. I always feel that we are halfway though our season once the Derby is over. The next stop is Galway and then the evenings start to close in and before you know it they are advertising for Christmas shopping! I better stop before I go into a depression, but seriously is it me, or are the years flying? Bellewstown starts on Thursday and runs through till Saturday. Hopefully they will get good weather because when the sun is shining there is no better place to be than up on the hills at Bellewstown enjoying a real country festival atmosphere. I would hope to have a couple of runners each day and would look forward to a winner or two, as we have been very lucky there in the past and took the 'leading trainer award" in 2006. The action will feature Leopardstown on Wednesday evening and at the moment the ground will be good to firm! I will believe that when I see it as they haven"t been right with the forecast yet this season! The big race is the €90,000 Brownstown Stakes (Group 3) over seven furlongs for fillies and mares. I hold an entry here with That"s Hot, but I have just been informed that, because of the reluctance of Irish racing to allow us race on a fast surface, the owner is sending her to race for the rest of her career in California. I will miss her as she has been a great servant to the yard. She won four races and collected close to €100,000 as she was placed in Listed and Group company last year. She ran a blinder when finishing fourth in the Stewards Cup at Goodwood. She hasn"t started to fire just yet this season, but I won"t be surprised to hear that she has won a valuable pot in the States and I wish her well. The Golden Fleece Stakes (Listed) for two-year-olds over seven furlongs is also on the Leopardstown card and has attracted an entry of 17 including five from the mighty Ballydoyle yard. We may run Achak, but I"m not sure that he is ready for this step up in class just yet, although I do like him and think he is capable of winning a Listed event. However, it may be next year before he is the finished article. I must congratulate my neighbour and pal Tony Martin for his big win last Saturday at Newcastle when he won the Northumberland Plate with his charge Arc Bleu under Adrian Nicholls. This was a good battling performance and as usual Tony planned this to perfection. Arc Bleu last won on Derby Day 2007 off a mark of 74 and he has only been seen twice since on the level, once last year when he finished third in a premier handicap at Tralee off 87 and this season at Dundalk when he was unplaced over a mile off 85. The Nothumberland Plate is the richest staying handicap in Europe worth £123,300 to the winner. To get into the race as first reserve off 8st 2lbs was a remarkable bit of planning and no doubt had the likes of John McCririck moaning about the new reserve system that they have in Britain. For what its worth, I think the use of reserves is a must. The arguments put forward by its detractors relate to the bookmakers and not the Turf Club or the Jockey Club. I will leave them to stand up for themselves and make sure that racing isn"t bullied by the likes of McCririck. * Visit the Ger Lyons website: www.gerlyons.ie