YOU’LL find it hard to come across many racing followers who feel the stewards got the decision right surrounding Benvenuto Cellini’s Derby non-runner saga.
On one hand, it’s clear the British Horseracing Authority isn’t reading the room when coming out in staunch defence of the call to withdraw the Epsom favourite from the final result. Common sense tells you the horse shouldn’t have been declared a non-runner.
On the other hand, it’s at least refreshing to see people at the head of the body in Britain fronting up and being both passionate and vocal in their views to the media, like BHA chief executive Brant Dunshea has done in recent days. Agree with him or not, he has at least shown character and attempted to demonstrate accountability.
When similar controversy comes our way in Ireland nowadays, it’s not often we hear directly from those individuals at the helm. The official message is instead typically passed down from press officers in prepared statement form, and that simply doesn’t carry the same vigour as when delivered first-hand by those in authority. A little more of that personable approach would do no harm to bolster confidence in our regulatory teams here, even if this message isn’t one that necessarily hits the right notes.
At the heart of the BHA stewards’ ruling is an eagerness to ensure fairness for the punter, and that is an understandable desire - even if the execution was incorrect in this case.
The saga has highlighted the fresh procedures in place for the authorities to aim for fairness, yet there is another relatively new rule in British racing that does exactly the opposite for the betting public in terms of its implementation. The latter feels like the next disaster waiting to happen on the big stage, potentially on another World Pool day that will majorly impact global markets.
It remains a most glaring inconsistency and inadequacy that disqualifications related to whip overuse are not dealt with on raceday. It is bound to rear its head at some point in the future.
For example, if Ronan Whelan had used his whip four times more than the permitted level of six in the Derby on Christmas Day, he would have been facing a disqualification when the Whip Review Committee met the next week.
Delayed justice
It would have been identifiable to all pretty quickly from the race replays that the first past the post was about to be disqualified - a move that would see Maltese Cross promoted to first - yet backers of the runner-up have no recourse on the day. They have to accept a defeat that we all know will later be amended and wouldn’t be paid out.
Even aside from punters, connections of the winner would be presented a trophy they are ultimately soon to hand back, and those involved with the runner-up cannot properly celebrate a win they are ultimately going to be given in the coming days. The whole thing has the makings of a hollow charade in the winner’s enclosure. Yes, disqualifications over whip breaches aren’t all that frequent, but we have had them on a significant stage - and only recently.
It was a tough pill for conditional jockey Paddy O’Brien and trainer Bill Durkan to swallow when Laafi was subsequently disqualified from his Aintree Festival win in April, after the rider went four whip uses over the limit. It can happen, and is bound to happen on another big day. Not settling the breach on the day makes no sense.
A simple assignment for the stewards to count the number of whip uses on the winner of each race would not take long to conduct in the immediate moments post race. It would save a lot of frustration for punters, who are unfairly missing out on a result, and would provide greater, immediate clarity to connections of the first two home.
The World Pool team and the BHA are understandably keen to deliver the fairest possible results for punters. Whip rule DQs are a far more pressing matter to address than the needless declaration of non-runners like Benvenuto Cellini, who ultimately jeopardise their own starts when there is no mechanical fault at play.
AIDAN O’Brien continues to make the extraordinary appear almost routine at this stage, with his fourth consecutive win in the Betfred Derby putting him in unprecedented territory in terms of Derby victories in a row for a trainer.
It was the 50th British classic success of his career and his 12th Derby, astonishingly achieved by the spritely age of 56.
What last weekend also demonstrated is that we can find top Ballydoyle prospects unleashed anywhere in the country, but particularly at one slightly unexpected track in recent years.
Firstly, Christmas Day won his two-year-old maiden at Gowran Park last September, and O’Brien’s last four Epsom heroes have opened their accounts at four different tracks.
Last year’s winner, Lambourn, won at Killarney on his debut in July 2024; that track also notably supplying Wings Of Eagles (2017 winner) and Anthony Van Dyck (2019 winner), as well as this year’s much-talked-about favourite, Benvenuto Cellini.
City Of Troy struck at the Curragh a year before his 2024 Derby victory, while a year before that, Auguste Rodin graduated from a maiden success at Naas. The likes of Camelot and Galileo won maidens at Leopardstown prior to Derby success, while High Chaparral was beaten on his Punchestown bow before winning a Tipperary maiden at two. There’s rarely such thing as a quiet Irish maiden - anywhere.
What’s more, away from the Derby, Cork was the scene of Precise’s maiden win last season, while Pierre Bonnard popped up at Dundalk. Scandinavia got off the mark at Navan in May last year. It’s not all that long ago either that Irish Derby winner Santiago and Juddmonte International scorer Japan won maidens at Listowel.
Western stars
The bottom line is that these top O’Brien horses can emerge from maidens anywhere around the country, and that adds competitiveness to contests nationwide.
There is a case to be made, however, that away from Ireland’s metropolitan tracks, the west has been best for finding Ballydoyle stars of late. Galway has been the starting scene for a treasure trove of young talent.
Christmas Day finished third in a Ballybrit maiden last year on his introduction, and he became the third O’Brien-trained Derby winner in the last decade to begin their career at Galway (Wings Of Eagles down the field on his 2016 festival debut and Serpentine well held in a September 2019 maiden).
You can follow closely at the calibre of horse that O’Brien has been sending west of the Shannon in recent times. The list makes for impressive reading.
At last year’s summer festival alone, brilliant French Derby hero Constitution River captured the seven-furlong two-year-old maiden on the Monday night, beaten Oaks favourite Amelia Earhart looked set for victory in the equivalent fillies’ maiden only for some waywardness after turning into the straight, and Group 1 Futurity Trophy runner-up Action (also second in the Dante) beat Christmas Day (third) in last year’s mile maiden for juveniles.
A season earlier, Trinity College - the impressive winner of last year’s Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot (and a close second in the Grand Prix de Paris) - won a back-end two-year-old maiden at Ballybrit, and Lingfield Derby Trial winner Puppet Master had Joseph O’Brien’s Group 1 winner Tennessee Stud behind when winning at the 2024 Galway Festival. Even in 2020, none other than Kyprios made a winning debut at the same venue.
O’Brien’s top arsenal are liable to pop up anywhere, but whatever he sends to Galway for two-year-old maidens this summer ought to be watched very closely indeed.