A truly great performance
Robin Oakley
Elaine of a sort is so easily acquired today. Minor celebs can fashion a career from little more than getting out of taxis in short skirts. A couple of gossip column mentions can briefly make a chef fashionable enough to charge three times what his food is worth. So let us celebrate real quality when we see it, as those of us lucky enough to be at Epsom on Derby Day did in the richest race ever run in Europe.
The magic of racing is that the truth is often so much more exciting than the fiction. This year's Derby was won by a horse, Kris Kin, who is described by his highly experienced trainer Sir Michael Stoute as one of the laziest he has ever trained, running for only the fourth time in his career. The horse is owned by Arab businessman Saeecl Suhail, who had been happy to let the trainer scratch it from the race last autumn and then buy his way back in five days before the race by paying a 00,000 supplement. And it was ridden by a jockey, Kieren Fallon, who was not long ago dropped off his horses by that same owner, a jockey who nearly lost the use of his arm in a horrific accident three years ago and who spent 30 days of the past winter in a clinic sorting out an alcohol problem, but who after six years grafting for his first 40 winners has become a towering presence in his sport, a sure bet for the jockeys championship as long as he wants to keep chasing it. He has worked for his fame and he deserves every minute of it.
Kieren's ride on Kris Kin was a truly great riding performance. The horse was overexcited at the start, sweating copiously, but somehow Kieren kept him calm, knowing that he would be asking questions of him early in the race.
All through the Derby Day card the importance of being up with the pace in races on the switchback course was amply demonstrated and Fallon forced his mount to compete from the start, chasing the leading group up the hill. When the scrimmaging started at the top as the field tightened towards the inside rail, it became pretty rough. But Fallon is not a man to give quarter and his mount, as he put it, was 'man enough to take them' when he got a couple of bumps. The Derby course really is a test of character as well as ability.
Round Tattenham Corner Kris Kin was in with a chance. but no more. To many of us in the stands it looked at the two-furlong pole as though Fallon had been push
ing for a while, but he says he could feel that when he dug deep his mount was going to answer. It was then that the genius of a great jockey's split-second racing decisions showed. He sensed the leaders had gone for home early and rather than going hell for leather after them he waited, determined not to ask the final question too soon.
It was the sort of decision that could only be made by a jockey full of confidence, a jockey riding the way Fallon is doing this season, as if he has been clapped on the shoulder by the Almighty and told it is his destiny to win. A couple of hundred yards out, Fallon galvanised his mount, every muscle in that formidably strong 5ft 4in body of his brought into play to will his mount forward. A horse turned within a few minutes from boy to man answered and stretched and they won, going away by a length. Saud Suhail's £90,000 gamble became an £852,600 prize.
The supplementing system has been gloriously vindicated. Of the three horses paying the £90,000 at the final stage Kris Kin won, Norse Dancer, who would have been recommended as an each-way bet to readers had this column been appearing last week, swept from last place round Tattenham Corner (what was Richard Quinn doing?) to finish faster than any in fourth and Dutch Gold ran a prominent race to be sixth.
For the bookies, I can happily say, it was a disaster. When Kieren announced he would be riding Kris Kin the horse's odds tumbled from 25-1 to 14-1. On the day of the race a massive racecourse gamble clipped that price down to 6-1. As the William Hill's representative declared: 'Turnover is through the roof thanks to the open nature of this year's race, but the roof has caved in.' In the old days the kind of people who bet only twice a year, on the Grand National and the Derby, used to ask what Lester Piggott was riding on Derby Day and plump for his mount. A fair few these days probably opt for Frankie Dettori. But now there is a real Fallon Factor. Mrs Oakley, happily, was swept along by it, though I fear that the less than exuberant nature of her staking won't exactly give us a dinner out on the proceeds.
If you find yourself fancying something for next year's Derby and there is any chance that Fallon might he riding it, get on early if you want to get a fair price. The bookies will not be taking any chances from now on.
Kris Kin was Kieren's second Derby winner after Oath in 1999 and there will surely be more. Poor Frankie is still in quest of that elusive Derby winner after 11 attempts. But he is clearly not letting it get to him. I encountered him as he rode down the chute to the course on Muhareb, his mount in the next race, and he was singing.
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